Ben Askren sends scathing message to Conor McGregor

Ben Askren and Conor McGregor recently had a brief skirmish on social media. Speaking on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show on Monday, Askren continued with this war of words by sending a scathing message to the former two-division UFC champion.

By Askren’s estimation, McGregor needs to take a fight — perhaps with Dustin Poirier, who recently called him out. If McGregor is unwilling to do that, Askren believes he needs to keep quiet.

“That’s what I do on social media, I poke people,” Askren said of his recent Twitter exchange with McGregor (transcript via LowKickMMA.com). “I think he probably spends a large portion of his day drinking, and so, a lot of his responses are kind of shenanigans, nonsensical, they don’t make a whole lot of sense. It was just like, I was getting annoyed — and listen, people in my mentions, they think I don’t get to have an opinion because I’m a fighter or something.

“I get to have an opinion,” Askren continued. “I like MMA, if I want to have an opinion, I get to have an opinion, and my opinion is, a Dustin Poirier fight is a good option for Conor, Conor should shut up, stop trying to act too good for it — take the fight, take a fight, take any fight, we don’t care.

“We just want to hear you shut up on social media and actually take a fight. I mean, give me a damn break. It’s been a year? More than a year? Before that, another year. It’s like, come on man. Get in there and shut up. No more Tweets let’s fight already. Conor can Tweet. He just can’t Tweet about fighting anyone without fighting, or saying he’s too good for fighting anyone without hopping in there. So he can Tweet about whatever he wants. Just not about saying, “I’m tough I’m gonna fight,” unless you actually fight.”

What do you think of this comment from Ben Askren? How do you think Conor McGregor will respond?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 9/16/2019.