Ben Askren thinks there are some fighters who are lacking the self-promotion category.
Ben Askren is putting his fighting days behind him. He is a former champion wrestler, a world champion mixed martial artist, and an athlete that competed in several different fight promotions. He was able to promote himself in a way that got people talking about him and was able to keep the interest of the fans on him. Even now that he has moved on from fighting he is still self-promoting.
Askren recently wrote a book detailing his life and experience in combat sports. While making the round promoting the book he took a shot at the way other fighters promote themselves or lack thereof. He spoke to Submission Radio about this.
“Some of them act in ways that are not conducive to their popularity and in moving along faster. What’s missing from the roster is interesting because I think there’s obviously some people to get it, but there are a whole bunch who maybe they don’t fully grasp the need. And, you know, some people just don’t want to do it. Right? Don’t feel like it. Demetrious Johnson, he didn’t want to be that guy,” he said. “I think “Sugar” Sean [O’Malley] is actually, he is a little bit of trying to copy Conor [McGregor] but I think he’s actually catching on a decent amount. I think it’s you gotta be yourself. You got to be consistent. And sometimes I do struggle with like, why don’t certain people catch on? Because like Demetrious, for example, I always really enjoyed him. And he never really caught on big from a fan base perspective. And it was always puzzling to me.”
Ben Askren brings into question the authenticity of Israel Adesanya
Askren is puzzled by the lack of authenticity from some fighters on the UFC roster but is also confused by the course of action some take in their rise to the top. Middleweight champion Israel Adesanya and his authenticity were brought to Askren’s attention and he admitted he was befuddled by the way he conducts himself.
“But the one thing about Israel is like he would he caught on to a certain extent, like, for example, when his walkouts were tremendous, but then some of the things he said are it’s like, dude, what’s up with this dude?” he said. “I feel like he said kind of homoerotic things. Almost the way he humped Paulo Costa, for example, you know, people were like, Wait, why is he humping him? This is strange.”
Askren had his own way of going about himself and his career. Following leaving the UFC he fought Jake Paul and was knocked out but left the ring with a big paycheck. To each their own.
