Brendan Schaub Gives Kudos To Ben Askren For UFC Career

UFC welterweight Ben Askren shocked the world when he announced his retirement from the sport earlier this week.

Askren — who was on a two-fight losing streak — revealed he needed hip replacement surgery and after thinking long and hard, decided to call time on his career. It brings an end to a year-long stint with the promotion which involved controversy, humor and a lot of trash talking.

But after his recent setbacks, there was really nothing else left to do for “Funky” according to Brendan Schaub:

“I don’t have a problem with it,” Schaub said on his podcast (via BJ Penn). “It’s like, he came when he was older. He’s what? 35? So it’s like he came late to the game, was in some big fights. I still think the UFC got the most benefit from the trade with ‘Mighty Mouse.’

“You don’t have the legend of [Jorge] Masvidal without Ben Askren. It takes two to tango to become a superstar. Ben helped with that. His sh*t talking, his controversial fight with Robbie Lawler. I get it. Then you lose to Demian Maia, so it’s kind of like what else is he gonna do?”

Askren’s trash talking rubbed many people the wrong way as plenty of fans took pleasure in seeing him lose to Masvidal and Maia. However, Schaub doesn’t understand the hate as he gave Askren credit for testing himself in the UFC:

“I know people wanna sh*t on Ben Askren,” Schaub continued. “I don’t get it. Kudos to him cause he didn’t have to do anything. Kudos for him for giving it a go man. Being like, ‘alright it didn’t work out.’ You beat Robbie Lawler. Obviously super controversial but he still beat Robbie Lawler, a Hall of Famer. So it’s like, alright now we know. Cool man.”

What do you think of Schaub’s comments?