Ben Askren is one of the best fighters in the world. And we may never get to see him match up with his elite peers.
The ONE Championship welterweight champ said he will likely retire at the end of his current contract, which has six fights remaining. Askren will defend his belt against Nikolay Aleksakhin in the main event of ONE: Global Rivals on Friday in the Philippines.
"I've got six fights left with ONE," Askren told MMA Fighting. "Then I told them, it's not a guarantee I'll be done, but I think there's a high likelihood that after those six fights I'll be calling it a day."
Askren has never lost in MMA and he plans on keeping that streak going. The unfortunate part is that he has never tested himself against the very elite fighters of his division, most of whom are in the UFC. Fans criticize Askren for that, but it's out of his hands.
"Anyone who says that, I know they're just uneducated about what happened," Askren said. "Frankly, it wasn't my decision at all and there's nothing I can do about it. I take that as either uneducated or they're just trying to annoy me."
The former two-time NCAA champion cut a parody video for the Fighters Only World MMA Awards in February. The song parodied Adele's "Hello" and was kind of a mea culpa to the UFC. Askren even used the word "sorry" in the song.
But, Askren said, he's not sorry. And it was just a parody video. He didn't mean any of it.
"I didn't do sh*t," Askren said. "They owe me an apology. ... The bald jokes will continue, yes sir."
LINK: Ben Askren eyeing retirement at conclusion of ONE contract
