Ben Askren says Francis Ngannou’s biggest problem since leaving the UFC is the same one Askren faced when he left Bellator for ONE Championship — a lack of credible dance partners.
Ngannou returned to MMA last Saturday with a first-round knockout of Philipe Lins at MVP MMA 1 on Netflix. Speaking on Daniel Cormier’s YouTube channel, Askren drew a parallel to his own career.
“Actually, you know, that was one of my big issues is when Dana wouldn’t sign me in 2013, and then I went to ONE Championship. So, I was thinking of this of Francis, and this has been Francis’ problem ever since he left the UFC. Maybe it’s been like three or four years now? It feels like a little while, but you need dance partners. And when I left Bellator and went to ONE Championship, I just didn’t have anyone who could really fight with me. So it was hard to build it, you know? And Francis is in the exact same situation where he’s got no one that can really fight with him, and you need that to build a star.”
Ngannou parted ways with the UFC as heavyweight champion. Potential opponents of the caliber of Tom Aspinall, Alex Pereira, and Jon Jones are unavailable to him given their UFC contracts and the promotion’s strained relationship with Ngannou.