Chael Sonnen reacts to Jorge Masvidal’s ‘scary’ KO over Ben Askren

Chael Sonnen was concerned for Ben Askren after Jorge Masvidal finished him in just five seconds.

Askren vs. Masvidal took place at UFC 239 in Las Vegas. It had been dubbed as the “people’s main event,” and it certainly delivered in terms of the highlight reel and record books. Masvidal sprinted at Askren immediately and landed a flying knee that put “Funky” to sleep. The five-second finish broke the UFC record for fastest knockout.

Sonnen was in attendance for UFC 239 as he served as an analyst on the ESPN+ desk. He released a video on his YouTube channel and admitted that he found the knockout to be scary:

“I will tell you I did not enjoy the knockout the way a lot of other people did,” Chael Sonnen said. “The arena erupted, I mean this is the culture, this is the sport. I get it, no hard feelings either way. I found it scary. And it would’ve not matter who it was. That was a scary moment. That was one of the worst knockouts I’ve ever witnessed. I believe it to be the worst because it was a car wreck. It was head-on. Ben was coming at him and changing [levels]. He was going down as Jorge was coming up. It’s just really powerful. I sent Ben a text message just saying, ‘hey when you have a chance would you just write me back something so I know you’re OK.’ Two hours later Ben wrote me back. He said, ‘all good, but I heard I lost.'”

With the victory, Jorge Masvidal has now inserted himself in the UFC welterweight title conversation. His teammate Colby Covington was initially set to receive the next shot at Kamaru Usman’s gold, but took a fight with Robbie Lawler due to “The Nigerian Nightmare’s” recovery time. Covington vs. Lawler takes place on Aug. 3 at UFC Newark.

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 7/9/2019.