Ben Askren Offers To End Retirement To Fight Nate Diaz: 'He Sucks At MMA'

Mandatory Credit: Jeff Bottari - Zuffa LLC

Ben Askren, a three-fight alum of the UFC, has claimed he is prepared to snap his three-year retirement from professional mixed martial arts and fight Nate Diaz in the latter's final bout of his current Octagon deal, after Diaz questioned the boxing ability of Askren following an April knockout loss to Jake Paul in his professional boxing debut.

Iowa native, Askren, called time on his professional mixed martial arts career back in November of 2018 following a UFC Fight Night Kallang submission loss to former middleweight and welterweight title challenger, Demian Maia.

The former Bellator MMA and ONE Championship welterweight kingpin made his professional boxing debut back in April of this year as part of a Triller Fight Club card against the aforenoted, Paul, where he suffered a one-punch knockout loss in the opening round.

Removing himself from the USADA testing pool off the back of his retirement three years ago, Askren, has quite stunningly claimed that he would re-enter the anti-doping program to help Diaz fulfill his contractual obligations with the promotion, claiming he will prove the Stockton native "sucks" at professional mixed martial arts.

"Nate [Diaz] is right, I suck at boxing," Askren tweeted. "He sucks at MMA. If he wants me to prove it I can be in the USADA pool tomorrow. Would be happy to be the last fight on his contract."

For Stockton fan-favorite, Diaz, the one-time lightweight title challenger recently dropped his second consecutive loss in the form of a unanimous decision defeat against welterweight contender, Leon Edwards in the first five round, non-main event, non-title bout in the history of the UFC at UFC 263 in June. 

However, speculation regarding Diaz's future with the organization has been rife ever since his summer return against Edwards, given the fact he retains a single fight on his current UFC deal, and is yet to pen terms on a new deal, amid previous interest shown in potential boxing matches.

Diaz has been linked with a return to the Octagon as soon as January at UFC 270, especially with the event taking place in Anaheim, California -- however, pairings with the likes of Tony Ferguson, or even the surging, undefeated #10 ranked, Khamzat Chimaev failing to come to fruition at the time of publication.