Mike Perry: Ben Askren’s A Bum

Mike Perry is not exactly impressed by Ben Askren’s MMA career.

Ben Askren entered the UFC with a tremendous amount of hype and lofty expectations that was elevated by Askren himself with his rhetoric in interviews and on social media. Askren arrived in the promotion with an 18-0 record and welterweight championships from two different promotions attached to his résumé, but after his 1-2 UFC run, Mike Perry has formulated a strong final opinion of Ben Askren and his legacy.

“Ben Askren’s a bum, and they’re only talking about his retirement!” Perry said in a recent appearance on UFC Unfiltered. “And he never fought nobody! He got three UFC fights! He got the luckiest draw with Robbie Lawler ever in his life!”

By “draw,” Perry may be referring the luck of drawing Robbie Lawler as an opponent, but it seems more likely that he is referring to the outcome of a fight in which he considers to be a draw. In the fight, Ben Askren was awarded the submission victory, even though a deemed-unconscious Robbie Lawler appeared fully aware and conscious immediately after the fight was stopped. And Perry did not stop at criticizing Askren’s UFC run. He would then contrast his own career with Askren’s as well as anyone else who accomplished championships outside the UFC:

“18-0 in other organizations and all that…I skipped all that!” Perry said of Askren’s pre-UFC career. “I saw Mike Bisping’s picture the other day, his Cage Warriors title defense, I said, what’d you get for that? $5,000? They wasn’t paying shit back in the day. I skipped all that. I went straight to the UFC money.”

Mike Perry is next scheduled to compete against Geoff Neale at UFC 245 next week inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.