2025 has turned out to be a nightmare for Ben Askren and his family. After battling a life-threatening illness, which saw him get a double-lung transplant, it seems like there was no more threat to the 41-year-old MMA veteran’s life, but recent reports suggest that Askren has been hospitalized once again after an infection was discovered in his first check-up since getting out of the hospital a few days ago. Joe Rogan, who has shown his support for the former UFC fighter after the news of his illness came to light, recently recalled how good Askren was when he was in his prime.

Ben Askren has made a great impression among his students at his wrestling school, as one of his students’ mothers shared a message of support for him as well. While parents seem to love his personality, his students know how good of a wrestler Askren was in his prime, and as such, he’s got a lot of students across all of his wrestling school branches. Joe Rogan believes the UFC fans may have gotten to see Askren’s wrestling prowess, too, if ‘Funky’ made his way into the UFC during the early 2010s, when he was putting down some of the best fighters in the world at Bellator.

“If you go back and watch him in the Bellator days, he’d just dominate guys. They’d have no clue as to what he’s doing. He’d take some of the best fighters in the world, and as soon as he grabbed hold of them, they were f—ed,” Joe Rogan stated on #2356 JRE. That’s when the guest, Mike Vecchione, recalled knowing Ben Askren through a friend. He jumped in, stating, “And that guy was known to have a motor. He’d never get tired.”

Joe Rogan then named a couple of Ben Askren’s famous rivals that he’d beaten. The first one was Douglas Lima, a former welterweight champion who never fought in the UFC. When Askren and Lima met in 2012, ‘Funky’ dominated the Brazilian to earn a unanimous decision victory. Moving over to the second one, it was another former welterweight champion, Andrey Koreshkov, who lost to Askren in 2013.

“I always wanted Askren to fight in the UFC long before he did. And unfortunately, I think he did sort of the prime of his career in Bellator, and no one got a chance to see it because that was when he was at his best,” Joe Rogan added. “When he fought guys like Douglas Lima… he was one of the best welterweights ever… and Ben Askren got hold of him and just ragdolled. Koreshkov, another guy, killer… ragdolled. He was just throwing those guys around. They just gave him noogies.”

Well, even Ben Askren once expressed how shocked he was that the UFC didn’t try to bring him in sooner. In fact, he claimed that there was a deal on the table almost a dozen years ago, but Dana White and Co. soon changed their minds. Here’s what he had to say.

Ben Askren reveals the initial offer from UFC

After Ben Askren defeated Andrey Koreshkov in 2013, he was expected to make the UFC move, with officials from the promotion putting forth an offer on the table. He mentioned having dealt with the World Series of Fighting, which is now known as the PFL, during which Dana White’s promotion popped up and gave him an offer where he could fight once in the rival promotion, but then he would be exclusively fighting in the UFC.

“Without getting too nuanced, what they offered me was that I would sign a contract with them, but I would do one fight in World Series of Fighting… They would pay my paycheck, they would do everything, and then after that singular fight, I would come over to the UFC,” Ben Askren said in 2022. However, not too long after the proposal, the UFC backtracked on it, but he doesn’t lament about it. “How didn’t this happen? Why didn’t this happen? This is so dumb. It’s one of those things you can’t have regrets about.”

Well, the fighting career is way behind now, and the only thing fans are worried about is seeing Ben Askren get back to good health. Another trip to the hospital does sound concerning, but the former UFC fighter has shown a positive attitude throughout these troubled times, so we hope he comes out okay at the end of his medical issues. Let us know your thoughts in the comments down below.