Back in the day, Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta flew to Russia and tried to convince heavyweight monastic Fedor Emelianenko to sign with the UFC. They were rebuffed, in part because Fedor was shackled to M-1 Global at a time the UFC wasn’t in the business of co-promotion. And in part because Fedor was a principled fighter unmoved by ordinary earthly treasures, who was selectively color blind to both the UFC’s version of green and Dana’s particular shade of red.
Ben Askren isn’t Fedor Emelianenko. The UFC can’t sign Askren and immediately stick him in a fight that would do record pay-per-view numbers, like it could have with Fedor and Brock Lesnar.