Three “Huh?” Moments in MMA Last Week: Bellator’s the Best, Political Punches, and Askren’s a Jerk

By
Heath Harshman
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Ben Askren UFC Singapore
Ben Askren Credit: Gabriel Gonzalez/Cageside Press

Ben Askren calls out Sean O’Malley for stretcher use

After his first-round TKO loss to Marlon Vera at UFC 252, high-profile bantamweight Sean O’Malley used a stretcher to go from the Octagon to the locker room. According to retired fighter Ben Askren, O’Malley should be embarassed by the stretcher. Huh?

Okay, we’ll just get this out of the way.

Back to O’Malley.

O’Malley has since responded, saying he “thought Ben Askren was smart”. There’s your first mistake, Sean.

“It’s just stupid. If you ask the smartest person in the world, you smash their foot and you say, ‘Do you want to walk over there or do you want to be carted?,’ they would take the cart.” – O’Malley, via MMA Junkie

The actually embarrassing part about O’Malley’s loss to Vera hasn’t been the reaction to the injury, or to Askren being a jerk. It’s been the way ‘Sugar’ has been so salty about Vera’s TKO victory.

“Whoever wins, how it happens, however they win, wins. He won. It sucks for me, because I lost to someone who I look at as not very good. I look at him, and I’m like, ‘He’s not that good.’ And I (expletive) lost to him. That’s what’s the most frustrating thing. Losing to someone I’m better than. That ‘humble’ post was a (expletive) joke. So for everyone commenting stupid (expletive), I’m not humble.

“Let’s look at his career in five years, and let’s look at mine. I’m going to be (expletive) world champ, and he’s going to be a (expletive) journeyman. That’s just what his style is. He wins some; he loses some. He’s slow, but he’s gritty, so he’s going to be able to finish some people after they beat him up for a while. … He gets lucky and beats me and jumps up like he won the (expletive) lottery. That just shows what kind of a (expletive) he was.” – via MMA Junkie

Vera, 27, has won his last six bantamweight bouts, dating back to August of 2018, and is currently ranked #14 in the UFC’s official 135-pound rankings. O’Malley, 25, is not ranked.

With Jon Jones headed to heavyweight, Bellator MMA’s light heavyweight division has the upper hand on every other promotion on the planet, according to President Scott Coker. People may not agree, but we haven’t seen anyone offer to fight him over it. The same can’t be said for Premier of Victoria Daniel Andrews, who was challenged to a fight by former UFC fighter and current COVID-19 denier Vik Grujic. That’s embarrassing for Grujic, but it would be even worse if Ben Askren ever saw him use a stretcher.

Huh? for the road

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