‘I Fought MMA for a Decade’- Ben Askren Opens Up After Jake Paul Loss

Published 04/20/2021, 6:58 AM EDT

Ben Askren suffered a knockout loss against jake Paul last weekend in the main event of the Triller fight card. Askren’s boxing debut didn’t go as he would have liked. After being undefeated in combat sport for over a decade, ‘Funky’ has now lost 3 of his last fight across MMA and boxing.

‘The Problem Child’ caught his opponent early in the first round of the fight with an overhand right that resulted in a knockdown. The fight was stopped subsequently, as Askren didn’t respond well enough to the referee’s liking. In a recent interview with Ariel Helwani, ‘Funky’ expressed the reason for his loss.

Askren: He's got a good overhand right. I didn't defend it well enough.#HelwaniShow pic.twitter.com/kzAnqrIB2w
— Jed I. Goodman (@jedigoodman) April 20, 2021

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“He’s got a good overhand right I didn’t defend it well enough. I mean, I do- I heard my corners yelling. Yeah, a big part of my training camp and every coach that I worked with said this was my guard was to lose and part of the reason was because I fought MMA for 10 years. I wanted people to throw overhand rights because that’s generally the easiest punch to get a takedown off of, right when they when they moved the right hand. It’s really easy to take down,” said Askren.

The former Bellator MMA and ONE Championship welterweight champion also added that his friend and former UFC welterweight champion, Tyron Woodley, repeatedly urged him to be prepared for that shot and set up his guard accordingly.

Ben Askren believes his MMA habits caused his mistake against Jake Paul

‘Funky‘ explained that he has been fighting MMA for over a decade comparing to his boxing experience of 11 weeks. So, his habits contributed to his mistake.

“And if you’re competing in athletics, you don’t want things to you don’t want to have to have to have conscious thoughts, right? You want to have those things happen, but I fought I boxed for 11 weeks. I fought mixed martial arts for a decade. So it was kind of a hard habit to break,” he further added.

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Askren is now retired from all sorts of combat sport. Whereas Paul is looking for his next opponent. The YouTuber has been calling every UFC star out in a quest to find a marquee name as his next dance partner inside the squared ring.

What did you make of Ben Askren’s reasoning? Who’s next for ‘The Problem Child‘? Share your thoughts.

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Written by:

Apratim Banerjee is an MMA author for EssentiallySports and has been writing professionally for almost a year. Before his current gig, Apratim worked as a UFC writer for Sportskeeda. A long-time MMA fan, Apratim has developed a critical eye for the sport that has helped him transfer his vast knowledge to his copies and give hardcore and casual readers a detailed insight into the fights and fighters.

‘I Fought MMA for a Decade’- Ben Askren Opens Up After Jake Paul Loss

Ben Askren believes his MMA habits caused his mistake against Jake Paul

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