Gunnar Nelson Open To ‘Exciting Matchup’ With Ben Askren

Gunnar Nelson believes a welterweight contest between him and Ben Askren would be an exciting matchup given their styles.

Askren suffered a five-second flying knee knockout against Jorge Masvidal at UFC 239 in what was his first professional loss. However, Nelson was not impressed with Askren’s UFC debut fight against Robbie Lawler either, and believes he was lucky to come away with the win that night:

“I think he was probably a bit lucky in that fight against Robbie Lawler, I think you’d probably agree with that,” Nelson told MMAFighting’s Eurobash podcast. “He got caught with some sh*t and then he got that choke that wasn’t really on.

“The referee thought Robbie was out, but he wasn’t. I think he got an easy out there. It did not look good when stood up after a few [big shots] from Robbie. I don’t know, he looks quite slow.”

That said, “Gunni” is still intrigued by a fight with Askren. Askren, of course, specializes in wrestling while Nelson is a submission wizard and one of the top level grapplers in the welterweight division.

Because of those reasons, he believes them clashing could be “very interesting”:

“I think it would be a very exciting matchup. I’d love to fight Askren at some point,” Nelson added. “He’s a good grappler and he has his own style. I think it would be interesting. He’s done really well, but his striking definitely needs some brushing up.

“In the grappling department he’s good; he’s good at keeping guys down, beating on them and wearing them out. I don’t think he has my submission skills, but he’s obviously decorated in wrestling. I’ve never competed in wrestling so he’d be really good in that area. It could be very interesting.”

Would you want to see this fight as well?