Former Bellator welterweight champion Ben Askren is no longer competing stateside, now that promotion CEO Bjorn Rebney has washed his hands of the "Funky" Olympic wrestler. After UFC President Dana White balked at the idea of adding him to the ZUFFA roster, Askren was signed to ONE FC.
Or what's being called the "Siberia" of the mixed martial arts (MMA) world.
That's one of the reasons he should have "shut up," according to Eddie Alvarez, who was "annoyed" when Askren gave his "uneducated opinion" about the contract fiasco that sent Alvarez to court once UFC officials expressed an interest in signing him.
From MMA Fighting:
"Ben was very opinionated about how my situation was dealt with although he had no clue about my situation. I'll have a little more respect and say that I don't know what happened with (his) situation, so I'm not going to comment, rather than be ignorant like he was and go about saying some stupid shit that he said. He annoyed me. He had a very uneducated opinion on how much money I should make. He knew how much I should ask for [because] people are making $8 an hour somewhere, so I should take the money and run. Yeah ... maybe he should have shut up."
See how that situation resolved itself here.
Alvarez (25-3) eventually returned to Bellator MMA and even got the last laugh, defeating Michael Chandler by way of split decision last November to reclaim his 155-pound crown. They'll complete their trilogy later this year -- this time on pay-per-view (PPV) -- to settle their score once and for all.
Askren, meanwhile, will continue to argue with Phil Baroni on Twitter.
Thoughts?