Dana White Confirms Ben Askren vs. Robbie Lawler Rematch Is On

Former multi-promotion champ Ben Askren won his UFC debut by submitting Robbie Lawler on the main card of last night’s (Sat., March 2, 2019) UFC 235 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was very controversial – so controversial that it’s already time Dana White confirms the rematch.

“Funky” was slammed and nailed with a barrage of power shots early, but somehow fought through the assault. He locked Lawler up in a tight bulldog choke, and Lawler seemed to go limp at first view. Referee Herb Dean called the fight off and “Ruthless” immediately jumped up and began protesting. Upon further review, it seemed Lawler was indeed still in the fight.

White Responds

The former UFC champ offered his reaction to the controversial call by calling out for a rematch, and now his boss Dana White has as well. Speaking on the stoppage at the post-fight press conference, White had the following to say:

“Bad stoppage. And uh, we had a debate, me, the referee, and the commission over being choked out. I’ve been choked out many times before too. And one of the things that you don’t do is jump right up and say, ‘What the f*** did you just do?’ It just never happens that way.

“It was a bad stoppage, it happens. What are you going to do? Sucks. It was a good fight.”

Rematch Pending

Lawler wants to run it back, and it’s plain to see why. Askren was asked about the fight during the post-fight conference himself and said he didn’t want it. In fact, he didn’t want to fight “Ruthless” in the first place. “”Funky” is more focused on going to London to call out the winner of Darren Till vs. Jorge Masvidal.

But White assured the media the rematch would indeed be happening instead:

“We wanna do the fight again, so, we’ll figure it out.”