Ben Askren is about to wrestle again in Milwaukee, and the comeback still sounds strange even to him.
Askren said in an MMA Fighting interview that the transplant ordeal can still feel unreal as he gets ready for RAF 11. He faces former UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad on July 18 at Panther Arena, just over a year after his life-threatening pneumonia battle led to a double-lung transplant.
Askren said the recovery has started to feel less like a daily crisis and more like something he is looking back on from a distance.
“I’m almost to the point where it seems like a bad dream or something sometimes. I feel like I’m just me now.”
“Obviously, I take medicine everyday, and there’s still some limitations that I can’t forget about, but I do find myself feeling more and more normal. At points it does just seem like a terrible dream.”
Ben Askren admits double-lung transplant almost feels like a “bad dream” now that he’s wrestling in RAF just one year later:
“I do find myself feeling more and more normal. At points, it does just seem like a terrible dream.”
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— MMA Fighting (@MMAFighting) July 15, 2026
How Askren Got Back To A Match
The return did not begin as a comeback plan. Askren first tested himself while coaching, then realized he could build enough over three months to take a real match.
“So I wrestled him but my thought was funny because I don’t know if I can go six minutes. I might just fall over at four minutes or five minutes.”
“I was like fine, I’m not very good right now but within the course of training over the next three months, I can get a lot better.”
He also said his one-year checkup brought better news, including reduced medication.
“Everything’s headed in a really good direction. I’m really grateful for everything that’s happened in the last year.”
“Some would say it was a terrible event, and I would say of course it was terrible, that’s how life does it sometimes.”
Askren’s recovery timeline already included his return to wrestling training after the double-lung transplant and the earlier support he received from Jake Paul, Dana White, and fans during the health scare.
Final Match, Not A Full Comeback
Askren is treating the Muhammad matchup as a final wrestling appearance, not the start of a new competitive run. His point is that the match is meaningful without needing to carry the ego of a fight result.
“It’s just a wrestling match. One of us is going to win, one of us is going to lose.”
“Me and Belal are doing a wrestling match. One of us is going to win, one of us is going to lose.”
“I still have great skills. Hey, if he beats me, he can say he beat an Olympian! I’m still an Olympian!”
Askren, a 2008 Olympian and former Bellator and ONE champion, has stayed close to RAF as a matchmaker. He also recently picked Arman Tsarukyan over Colby Covington at RAF 11, but his own match now becomes the most personal piece of the event.
“I don’t want to do anymore matches. This is it for me.”
“When they told me it was going to be on my birthday, something just said ‘Ben, get out there and wrestle.’ It’s a year after your transplant, it’s your birthday, it’s in your hometown, go do it.”
Askren turns 42 on fight day. The opponent is a former UFC champion, the venue is in his home state, and the stakes are simple: make the walk after a year that almost took the choice away from him.
