Following Sunday’s UFC 239 pay-per-view, social media was flooded with cringing gifs and video clips of Jorge Masvidal knocking out Ben Askren with a winning flying knee in a matter of seconds. This earns the 34-year-old American Welterweight a record for the fastest finish in UFC history. Fans around the world expressed awe and disbelief online as the fight lasted a total of two seconds before Askren went down like a sack of bricks, rendered unconscious.
See how it all happened:
As soon as that bell rang, Masvidal charged full-speed at Askren who decided to duck, looking for a takedown. That proved to be a lethally wrong move for the former ONE Welterweight champion as he practically butted his head right into Masvidal’s flying knee. As a result, Askren fell back unconscious and unmoving. Masvidal wasted no time to swoop down on Askren to land a couple of punches before the referee rushed over to stop the match.
Masvidal got flack for the two punches he gave Askren, even though technically they are legal strikes as long as the referee hasn’t stopped the fight yet. At the post-fight conference, he stated that they were “super necessary” because until the referee officially stops the fight, hitting the opponent is “fair game” and that his job is to “hit somebody until the referee pulls me off”.
He was even questioned for his post-fight showboating, but he doesn’t even flinch as he gave his answer that’s basically: “I don’t like him”. It’s no secret that Masvidal doesn’t like Askren who had crossed a line with him when he challenged his manhood and ethnicity during the buildup to the fight. Masvidal is not a fan of fighters who do that solely to hype up their fights as they’re not being true to themselves.
While it may have looked effortlessly impressive, it was anything but. Masvidal’s head coach Mike Brown posted a video of the winner executing the same exact flying knee move during training, just 48 hours before the UFC 239 fight. According to the interim UFC Lightweight champion Dustin Poirier, Masvidal and Brown told him that starting the fight with the flying knee was the plan all along. What a brilliant strategy to work with, knowing a wrestler like Askren would typically look to take the fight to the ground.
And after all that, it left Askren with just this to say:
And the best fan reaction goes to:
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