Issue 175
January 2019
As the undefeated welterweight makes his overdue debut in the UFC, it seems he’s ready for anyone.
TALE OF THE TAPE UFC
- Welterweight Age: 35
- Record: 19–2 (1)
- Team: Roufusport / Evolve MMA
*The interview that follows took place in 2018*
Q. Ben Askren the UFC welterweight. After nine years in mixed martial arts, are you getting used to the sound of that?
A. The letters behind my name don’t define me. I am the same person I have always been. It’s just that now I get the opportunity to prove if I am as good at fighting as I said I was.
Q. Fans, fighters and media members alike have been clamoring for this day for quite some time. Over the years there were a few detours and issues in getting a deal done with the UFC. Were there moments when you thought this day would never come?
A. I wouldn’t say there were many twists and turns. I only had that one free agency period back in 2013, which obviously didn’t work out for me to go to the UFC. Since then, I have been under contract with ONE Championship. I retired with fights left on my contract last November. Since then there has been a lot of clamoring, maybe it was because of the Joe Rogan Podcast, maybe it’s because I’m 18-0 and I say I’m really good. No one can really disprove that. People want to see it. It led to this trade happening.
Q. Who would have ever foreseen a trade in MMA?
A. I sure didn’t foresee that happening. If anyone said they saw that coming they are lying. It was a long process and a long road but not too many twists and turns, just grinding it out over the years. When I retired I meant it. I said there is a contingency and if I get to fight people better than me and I get to prove I’m the best I would fight again. That was the one contingency and now I am going to have the ability to do that.
Q. When we last spoke you had a flourishing gym, a beautiful young family and you were definitely headed toward a retirement from mixed martial arts. You said you weren’t completely closing the door but do you wonder how we got to this point so close to your proposed retirement?
A. When I retired I felt it was 50/50 whether I would ever get to go prove it or not. I have never taken any injuries. I live a very healthy life – no drugs or alcohol. I was 33 when I retired and I thought I had a few years left. Georges St. Pierre sat on the bench for four and a half years and came back and looked great. I figured because of the healthy lifestyle I live and I’ve been essentially injury free, that I will have a few years here where if it takes that long to get done I will be fine. I gave a little cushion there. It took ten or eleven months to get it done. Now I get to go prove it.
Q. You are a part of the first MMA trade, a historic swap between the UFC and ONE Championship that involves you – one of the greatest welterweights in history and Demetrious Johnson – one of the greatest pound-for-pound fighters in history. How did it all come together and what part did you play in it?
A. I can’t really say I had too much of a part in it besides the fact that ONE Championship knew I wanted to fight guys ranked higher than me. I kept pushing them on the topic, whether it was to sign someone or something else. They even reached out to Bellator about co-promoting a fight between me and Rory MacDonald. Bellator shot that down, Scott Coker specifically. When ONE called me and asked if I would like to be traded to the UFC, I asked what that even meant. Is that a thing? Can you do that? I really didn’t think much of it. It was a crazy idea. The UFC has historically been curmudgeons on doing stuff like that, working well with others. They called me back a week later and said it was done. I was shocked. I was blown away. It took about five weeks to get all of the paperwork done. Now we are here.
Q. After all the talk and all the tweets over the years, now you can finally prove you are the best. That has to get the blood owing again, to have the opportunity to prove what we have all been talking about for years now.
A. Absolutely. I am so excited to prove it. They are going to give me somebody really good right away. They aren’t going to mess around and give me somebody who stinks. I will start my run.
Q. You mentioned GSP, Darren Till and a few others. If you had your druthers, who would you have liked to have seen standing across from you first in the Octagon?
A. If I really got to choose it would be GSP and Khabib. Those two, at least for the moment are unreal possibilities, for right now, that’s not saying forever. I think really the ones that I’m keying on right now are Thompson and Lawler. Those are the two guys left in the top five that are open to fight. Everyone else is kind of booked up or below that. That’s why I picked on Till initially. He is ranked number two. He is the highest available. I wanted the highest available. We will see where it goes from here.
Q. We are all well aware of the lack of relationship between you and Dana White. It was made very public that the boss still has you blocked on social media. Do you see any time soon for a sit down with Dana?
A. I grabbed him at UFC 230 and said ‘Let’s clear the air.’ He said we were good. We haven’t really talked about it. I don’t know. Maybe moving forward there will be more communication.
Q. We are hearing people talk about a 165 pound weight class and potentially a 175 pound weight class. Would you be interested in new weight classes and being the king of 165 as opposed to 170?
A. I think 165 would be fantastic for myself and for the business. It would set up a ton of great super fights and it’s something the fans would really want to see.
Q. Many have talked about you being past your physical prime. But you said recently that you are in your mental prime. Can you speak about where you are mentally and physically right now?
A. I am absolutely past my physical prime. It’s skill building. I’m skill building and I have been for a long time. It’s about working smarter, not harder. As I have gotten older I have geared back my training. I can’t do the things I did when I was 19 or 20 years old. I was insane. I trained all the time, every day. I got up the next day and went hard again. I did it all year round.
Now my recovery time has changed. As far as a singular workout, am I as powerful, as fast, can I go as long? Yeah I feel like I can over the course of one workout. Can I string those together the way I could in my early twenties? No. It’s not even close. For me, it’s just about being intelligent about what I am doing and where my hard work needs to be and not doing stupid, wasteful things.
