Nearly three years removed from his boxing match with Jake Paul, Ben Askren doesn't have too many bad feelings.
“Funky” was one of the first fighters to step up and scream “problem child.” After Jake Paul knocked out former NBA player Nate Robinson on the Mike Tyson vs. Roy Jones Jr. undercard, Ben Askren took aim at the YouTuber. The former UFC welterweight retired a year ago and underwent hip replacement surgery upon his retirement.
Naturally, he became the perfect opponent for Jake Paul. The two quickly came to an agreement and will meet in April 2021 at the upstart Triller Fight Club. This boxing match was Ben Askren's first and almost certainly his last. Despite training with Freddie Roach and others, “Funky” was eliminated in the first round.
In the years that followed, several other MMA fighters suffered the same fate against Jake Paul. With that in mind, Ben Askren doesn't feel too bad about it.Talk about Rampage Jacksons jackson On the podcast, the former UFC welterweight was asked about his brief foray into boxing. There, Askren admitted he hadn't even sparred in years before accepting the fight.
But Askren said the YouTuber-turned-boxer wasn't that good and expected him to outlast him. That obviously didn't happen. However, given Jake Paul's success in the boxing ring and his future victory over Anderson Silva, Askren feels he did what was expected of him.
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Image credit: Triller Fight Club
Former UFC welterweight Ben Askren reflects on his boxing match with Jake Paul
“Initially I had no intention of fighting him. Like everyone, I was just tweeting, right?” Ben Askren said on the JAXXON podcast when asked about his boxing match with Jake Paul. Stated. “Then they call me up and are like, 'Hey, do you want to fight?' I don't know, but it kind of sounds like fun. But I had hip surgery, so I literally stopped working out at all. I ended up gaining a lot of weight because I didn't have it. So I called my doctor and he gave me permission to start training again.”
he continued. “I was hoping he was bad. He's not very good, so he'll be able to weather the storm for a round or two, and then he'll get tired, and I'll beat him.” Now, obviously, since that point, he beat Anderson Silva. He beat Tyrone. [Woodley], he defeated a professional boxer. ”
“It's a shame because he was actually good at it,” Ben Askren concluded. “That's the most unfortunate thing for me.”
Ben Askren has remained retired for years after losing to Jake Paul in the boxing ring. However, “Funky” came out of his retirement and offered to face his former rival Jorge Masvidal at UFC 300.
What do you think about these comments? What do you remember about Jake Paul vs. Ben Askren in 2021?
