Ben Askren Reveals What He Would Have Changed In His MMA Career Looking Back
Ben Askren doesn’t have many regrets about his mixed martial arts career, but he would have definitely changed one thing.
Askren retired from the sport last year following his submission defeat to Demian Maia at UFC Singapore. It concluded what was an overall underwhelming stint with the UFC where he went 1-2.
Many observers felt Askren joined the promotion too late as opposed to his prime years where he competed for Bellator and ONE Championship. And while there was a possibility of him joining the UFC back in the day only for it to not come to fruition, “Funky” is happy with where his career took him.
“As far as the career path I took, had I been able to foresee the future, I don’t think so,” Askren said in a recent social media post (via MMA Fighting). “When I was 3-0 and Bellator offered me that deal, I thought that was a really great deal. I thought it was an outstanding opportunity, which it was. My time in Bellator went really well and at the end of that when my negotiation came up, it didn’t work out with Dana [White] and the UFC. To this day, I still don’t know why so I couldn’t change that.
“I found a great home in ONE Championship, everything went well there. I retired, I came back. So from that perspective, I wouldn’t change anything.”
Askren Would Have Added One Weapon To His Arsenal
So what was the one thing Askren would have changed if it wasn’t joining the UFC sooner?
Having a proper jiu-jitsu coach.
“The one thing I think I would have changed if I could go back, I didn’t ever think I was going to fight until 2019,” Askren said. “I never thought that would be the case. I thought I’d be retired way before. I never really had a great jiu-jitsu coach until really the end of my career when I found Marc Laimon. I really enjoyed him.
“But before that, there was really a mix of different jiu-jitsu coaches at [Roufusport] and I think that my potential to choke people out was untapped.”
Of Askren’s 19 career victories, six have come by way of TKO while six have come by way of submission.
While that is a very respectable finish rate, one would imagine having more finishes in the form of submissions would have changed the perception of the American as a “boring” fighter and maybe led to him joining the UFC sooner.
“I was the best pinner in the modern era of college wrestling and I think if I would have went to work with say the [John] Danaher Death Squad or Marcelo Garcia, I could have really tapped into that at a much higher level,” Askren added. “But at the same time, I really liked being coached by Duke [Roufus], that was going well and I always thought, hey I’m good enough on the ground, I need to work on the striking end of the takedowns. I always thought hey I’m going to be done in a couple of years and then it just ended up so happening that I fought until effing 2019.
“If I would have put some more time into jiu-jitsu, I think I could have gotten better choking people. Hey that’s how it goes sometimes. That’s what I would have done a little bit differently had I been able to go back and do it again.”
What do you make of Askren’s comments?
