Ben Askren scorches Dana White for “Weird personality trait” amidst Francis Ngannou feud

Former UFC star Ben Askren sees striking parallels between his past feud with Dana White and what Francis Ngannou has experienced since departing the promotion.

Ngannou, who won his PFL debut earlier this month over Renan Ferreira, has been the target of White’s in recent days. After the story of Ngannou’s UFC departure resurfaced, White claimed he’s had issues with Ngannou for years, dating back to Ngannou’s first title fight against Stipe Miocic.

White went as far as to say he wanted to cut Ngannou after he lost to Derrick Lewis in a lackluster fight at UFC 226. But, two of his associates convinced White to keep Ngannou on the roster, despite his hatred for the future heavyweight champ.

Askren went through a similar roller coaster with White before signing with the UFC in 2019. For years, White attacked Askren through the media, claiming that he’d “Rather watch flies f*** than watch Ben Askren fight”.

Askren believes White’s public feuds are due to a serious personality flaw he’s had since taking over the UFC reins.

Ben Askren weighs in on Francis Ngannou vs. Dana White feud

During a recent episode of Funky and the Champ, Askren reacted to Ngannou and White’s public feud.

“I’ve obviously had the same experience with Dana. And I mostly think Dana does a great job. Obviously as a businessman, he does an amazing job. I think he showed a lot of courage when he brought the UFC back before all the professional sports, I respect that a lot…to which point Dana spent years saying I didn’t want to fight the best, didn’t want challenges, I was running away. And that couldn’t’ve been further from the truth,” Askren said. “So it sucked for this guy, it’s essentially slander, saying things about me that I knew weren’t true…

“Dana has this part of his personality when he can’t get what he wants, and in that case, he didn’t offer me a contract,” Askren continued. “He did the same thing with Cyborg, I believe Randy Couture had a similar experience, Francis…but there’s this weird part of Dana’s personality where if he can’t get exactly what he wants, he starts crapping on people. And because he has a big microphone and he’s generally very truthful, and correct, so people just believe him…I had to deal with many years of Dana telling lies about me that were just really harmful. He had no reason or basis for doing [it]…it’s a really big negative, I don’t know why he’s like that, and it doesn’t really make sense given the stature and power he has, for him to throw fits when he doesn’t get exactly what he wants.”

As of this writing, White hasn’t addressed Askren’s remarks nor Ngannou’s latest accusations he made in an interview with MMA Today. As for Askren, he retired from MMA in 2020 following a 1-2 UFC stint.