Ben Askren and Johny Hendricks have known each other a long time, and during that time… Askren says that Hendricks has always avoided him.
The rivalry started in college with Askren wrestling for the University of Missouri and Hendricks fighting under the Oklahoma State banner.
Last week on The MMA Hour, Askren was asked how the feud started and the OneFC champion said that it began with another UFC welterweight contender… Tyron Woodley.
“It’s hard to describe in full effect unless you’ve been around the wrestling community a long time,” Askren said. “He has won so many matches lucky through college. … He was wrestling my teammate Tyron Woodley in the Big 12 finals, 2005-06, somewhere around there, and [the score] was 1-1 in the third. Tyron’s in on a shot, and Johny kept sticking his fingers into Tyron’s mouth. So finally Tyron bites him, which he shouldn’t have done, but when someone’s sticking fingers in your mouth, it’s like, c’mon, so he gave up a point because he bit him, land he lost match 2-1. And it’s like c’mon, is that really how you’re going to lose the Big 12 finals? He was just doing sneaky s– like that all the time.”
Askren also said that Hendericks wimped out of the match again at an All-Star collegiate wrestling meet.
“The people at the All-Star Classic said you can’t do that because you’re not the same weight class,” Askren said. “I said I don’t care, I’ll make the sacrifice, I’ll go down in weight. I want to beat this dude bad. They never did make it happen. A couple years down the road I heard it was because he turned the match down personally. I can’t confirm or deny that face.”
Most recently, Askren attempted to provoke Hendricks in Las Vegas, when the two were seated adjacent each other at The Ultimate Fighter 19 Finale.
“I stopped him, I said Johny, go tell Dana [White] we need to fight,” Askren said. “He was response was ‘Dana who?’ At this point I’m so dumbfounded he said Dana who, I’m like obviously you know who I’m talking about Johny, don’t be a dummy. I just started laughing, before I finished laughing, he walked off. That was our face to face right there, if he said I didn’t say anything to his face that’s a damn lie.”
