Conor McGregor reacts before taking on Donald Cerrone in their welterweight bout during UFC246 (Photo by Steve Marcus/Getty Images)
The Lightweight title was made vacant after Khabib Nurmagomedov retired but Ben Askren doesn’t believe Conor McGregor should just be given the title
Ben Askren was the latest guest to feature on the Schmozone podcast. The former Bellator and One Champion shared his views on a lot of the current topics in the world of the UFC, and one of them was the vacant Lightweight title.
Khabib Nurmagomedov shocked the world by retiring after he beat Justin Gaethje at UFC 254. The Russian ended his career at 29-0 after making a promise to his mother, but the big question is who gets the title next?
The UFC should have a proper check on who should be next as there are some top names in the promotion. Dustin Poirier, Conor McGregor, Tony Ferguson and Michael Chandler are some of the big names looking for the gold.
However, he didn’t believe that anyone should just get the title, and also shared his views on why McGregor shouldn’t:
“I don’t think you can put the strap on Conor. He is way too unreliable.
“Can’t keep his d*** in his pants, who knows what is going to happen with him. You don’t want to put a strap on him, I don’t think.”
Askren backed a tournament being held to determine the winner. He named some of the big stars that should be in the tournament, and wanted eight names to be included in that:
“You make it an eight-man tournament, you can throw Conor in there, Dustin, Tony, Chandler, Charles Oliveira, Dan Hooker is a great one, I am sure I am missing a few names. [Paul] Felder, [Islam] Makhachev, that would be another good one.”
The Schmo also wanted something like this to be held. However, the pair brought up that the UFC doesn’t hold such tournaments.
It is a little weird why they don’t but this would ensure that people are interested in fighters for a while since they would be featured monthly or ever 45 days.
Askren also believed that the tournament could be wrapped up in 4-5 months with each fighter appearing once every 10 weeks.
The former UFC star also said that Khabib’s performance against Gaethje was “tremendous”.
This was an exclusive interview from The Schmozone Podcast. For more exclusive interviews and content please follow the link.
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