Just a day after Demetrious Johnson and Ben Askren weighed in on their UFC-ONE FC trade ins in 2018, Daniel Cormier has sprung into action and rendered the final verdict. The UFC commentator believes, despite Mighty Mouse’s humility on the subject, it is clear that ONE FC got the better end of that deal.
DC claimed that while Askren was his podcast partner and his friend, the ‘who won’ question never really had a tough answer.
” ONE FC WON! They won. And its clear.”
Despite the impressive skill set that allowed him to win the very first UFC flyweight title in 2012 and then successfully defend it 11 times over a period of 6 years, Johnson was never truly valued in the UFC. So when he was traded for Askren, ONE got a far better deal.
ONE’s competition gained a lot of legitimacy with the great Mighty Mouse working in their house. While he was there, Johnson not only won Flyweight title but was the 2019 ONE Flyweight World Grand Prix Champion and he also made a whole lot of money while he was at it.
He put on highlight reels that will watched for decades to come, thus cementing ONE FC’s place in history via proxy!
UFC, on the other hand lost out on a legit superstar and now, 6 years later have a rather ignored flyweight division that could have benefitted from a legend like Johnson.
However, Johnson himself continues to believe that the trade was a win for both UFC and ONE and the reason was the superstars Askren manage to create.
Mighty Mouse continues to claim fair trade
On his MightyCast podcast, Johnson claimed that the Askren was exactly what the UFC needed at the time.
“You got to come to the UFC, get the opportunity to fight, see what you could do there. The UFC got you, which you were very good about creating buzz. Your sh*t-talking was actually intelligent sh*t-talking. You would be very good snippets.”
Cormier agrees with Johnson here. DC even admits that without Askren eating the flying knee, there would ‘rise of Jorge Masvidal, the street Jesus’.
” You wouldn’t have Kamaru Usman, Leon Edwards. So Ben Askren played a big part… but ONE won.”
Of course, the debate shall always continue amongst the fighters themselves but purely from the statistical aspect of it, ONE FC won and they won big.
Askren was self-admittedly pretty much done by the time he went inside an UFC octagon. This is not to say he didn’t do well there. He managed to finish Robbie Lawler on his debut. But it was his losses that contributed more to the superstar making process of the UFC than anything he voluntarily did.
