Ben Askren goes into the ONE Championship MMA ring for a rematch against Luis "Sapo" Santos later this month.
Askren said he's lost all respect for Santos after he was inadvertently poked in the eye, which caused the referee to end the last fight in April. Asken said even six months later he still feels like Santos was "playing up" the injury because he was losing.
"I don't respect him," Askren said. "I don't respect him at all because he wanted a way out. The guy was faking like he couldn't speak English, he wouldn't speak to the doctor, and he was just being ridiculous in the cage. That was one thing. I was walking over to his corner saying, 'Speak English. We know you speak English. You've lived in America for five years.' I had mutual friends with the guy. I have a great idea that he understands English, especially with the limited vocabulary that is used in fighting."
The two face each other again on Nov. 13 at Singapore Indoor Stadium in Singapore. It streams as an online pay-per-view in North America.
Santos hasn't said much since the incident, but his wife Carina Damm said Askren was the unprofessional one for poking her husband's eye in the ring.
"The doctors were talking to 'Sapo' in the cage and Askren was all over it, trying to push him back to the fight," Damm told MMAFighting.com. "He wanted 'Sapo' to return injured so he would have an advantage over him. That was his only chance, in my opinion. Ben Askren is unprofessional and everybody saw that."
The fight in April ended bizarrely when replays show that Santos was hit with a thumb to the eye from Askren. The referee, however, believed that Santos was hit with a shoulder, and therefore insisted the fight continue.
After given five minutes to recover, the fight was eventually called off by referee Olivier Coste.
Askren is unbeaten in 15 professional outings and is considered one of the world's top welterweight MMA fighters outside of the FC. Before going up against Santos, the former 170-pound Bellator titlist defeated both Bakhtiyar Abbasov and Nobutatsu Suzuki in the first round.
Santos, 35, is an accomplished MMA fighter as well with a 61-9-1 career record. He had won seven of his last eight bouts, with the no-contest against Askren the only non-victory in recent history.
Check out more on the Santos-Askren rematch here and here.
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