Ben Askren: Beating Up Jake Paul Sounds Fun To Me
Former ONE Championship and Bellator welterweight titleholder Ben Askren, has expressed an interest in fighting YouTuber turned boxer, Jake Paul.
Paul – who scored a second round knockout victory against NBA star Nate Robinson this past weekend in the co-main event of the Mike Tyson vs Roy Jones Jr event – has been campaigning for a fight with Askren. In little less than a week, he has also called out Dillon Danis, Conor McGregor, and Jorge Masvidal.
Not Impressed With Jake Paul
While others have not responded to Paul’s callout, Askren has thrown shade back his way. Talking to Submission Radio (as transcribed by MMA Fighting), ‘Funky’ said that he was not impressed by the YouTuber’s performance against Robinson.
“It’s hard to say when you’re going against someone who’s that bad,” Askren said. “I watched the highlights, Nate Robinson, good god. I mean, honestly, it looked like he’d never been boxing before. For someone who’s such an elite athlete – I mean, this guy’s a very elite athlete, he was a great basketball player – he couldn’t box worth a damn. So, I guess Jake Paul has as least enough power to put Nate Robinson to sleep. I don’t really know if that tells us very much.”
Askren also warned Paul that the difference between beginners and elite fighters is huge, and the 23-year-old wouldn’t be able to handle it.
“Obviously I’m someone who is a high-level fighter, who has a large following, who was maybe not known for his stand-up. I think that’s probably what he’s thinking. But, I’ve worked out with some other guys, just kind of been around, and they’re not fighters, and they… every fat guy on the couch in America thinks he can fight, right? They really do. And then once they feel what it really feels like, it’s just different. There’s just this gap. Like, they don’t understand what it really feels like.”
Fighting Post-Surgery
In September, Askren underwent a hip replacement procedure, which will keep him away from the the wrestling mats for a year. While he might not be able to compete in wrestling or MMA till then, he believes he could compete in boxing.
“I’m not supposed to do live wrestling for a year post-surgery, which is September 1st,” Askren said. “Boxing, that seems kind of easy. Like, I’m sure I could do that. Like, there’s no shots, there’s no slams, there’s not leg locks. I dunno, that seems relatively safe to me.”
The 36 year old Askren said that he would be happy to beat up Paul – be it in Muay Thai, kickboxing, boxing or lethwei – for a big pay day.
“Most people are like, ‘Oh, I don’t know why Ben Askren would stoop to that level’. It’s like, listen, when I was in high school, one of the fun things to do was, a bunch of dudes would come over to the house, we’d put on some boxing gloves and we’d try to beat the s*** out of each other,” Askren said. “Like, we did that for free, we just did that for fun. And now you’re telling me you’re gonna pay me a whole bunch of money to beat up a YouTube star. Like, I don’t know, that just sounds like a fun Friday night to me. Muay Thai, kickboxing, boxing, lethwei. Name the style. You name the style, I’ll win.”
Would you like to see a Ben Askren vs Jake Paul boxing bout?
See also: