Ben Askren thinks the UFC forced Jorge Masvidal’s hand when matching him up with Gilbert Burns.

Burns (20-5 MMA, 13-5 UFC) claims Masvidal (35-16 MMA, 12-9 UFC) turned him down on numerous occasions before the pair was finally booked for the UFC 287 co-main event on April 8.

Askren, who suffered a record-setting knockout loss to Masvidal in 2019, doesn’t see “Gamebred” beating Burns and thinks he was trying to avoid him before getting pressured into accepting the fight.

“No,” Askren answered Daniel Cormier on Masvidal beating Burns. “That’s why he’s been saying no to Burns, because he doesn’t think he’s gonna win either. DC, you know how most of these dudes work. If they think, ‘I can beat that dude up,’ they say yes easy. If they think they can’t then they say no. That’s how they work.”

He continued, “Burns is what Jorge wants to be. Burns is like, ‘I’ll fight anyone,’ and he actually will. … Burns has kind of fought everyone. He seems like the guy that’ll say yes no matter what. He wants to fight Colby (Covington), he fought (Khamzat) Chimaev, he’s fought (Kamaru) Usman. He’s kind of fought all the best guys in the division.”

Although Masvidal is currently on a three-fight losing skid, Askren thinks he can leapfrog the other contenders with a win over Burns.

“Oh yeah. Over Gilbert Burns? That’s for sure,” Askren said of Masvidal getting a title shot with a win. “I mean, Chimaev, (Belal) Muhammad and Colby are kind of wild cards, because we don’t know what’s gonna happen next with them, but Gilbert Burns is top of this division for sure, and if Masvidal can beat him, then yeah, I think he would be fighting for the title next.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 287.