Ben Askren is prepared for all the ridicule.
Askren suffered a first-round TKO defeat to Jake Paul in their Triller Fight Club headliner last night at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia.
“Funky” did manage to land one right, however, his lack of striking was clearly on display as Paul would drop him with a big right.
Askren got to his feet but after stumbling his way towards the referee, the fight was called off with Paul earning the first-round victory.
Askren: Ridicule Is Deserved
The ridicule on social media began almost instantly and as far as Askren is concerned, it’s completely deserved on his part.
“It’s probably deserved,” Askren said in his post-fight media scrum about the ridicule he’d be receiving. “Because I got knocked out by Jake Paul. It’s f*king embarrassing.”
“I didn’t let the MMA community down, I let the world down. People f*cking hate Jake Paul and they wanted to see me make him miserable and I didn’t do that. So I didn’t let the MMA community down, I let the world down.”
Askren didnt get a chance to do much in the fight and recognized his mistakes that led to KO.
“I heard my coach Mike (Rhodes) he was saying I was definitely overreacting to his feints and that was the beginning of the end,” Askren added. “I probably shouldn’t have reacted that hard to the feints. If that ref would have let me grapple a little longer, maybe that would have helped out a little bit but at the end of the day no excuses. I got in a f*cking boxing match and it didn’t go so well.”
However, Askren doesn’t seem to be too affected by the defeat.
After all, he earned a guaranteed $500,000 payday with potentially more earnings through bonuses and any cut of the pay-per-view.
“I’m going to take about a million dollars home in the bank and I’m going to coach some wrestling. I don’t really give a sh*t,” Askren said. “There’s a pizza waiting in my hotel room. I’m going to go eat that. I’m going to fly home and hang out with my kids tomorrow and on Monday, I’ll probably be at wrestling practice.”
You can watch his full reaction below:
