Belal: Ben knew he would lose to Paul

[Volador]

Imagine comparing fighting Floyd Mayweather and making it to round 10 and fighting Jake Paul and getting finished in round 1. Oh boy

Imagine not understanding the similarities between both situations. Both guys took a fight in boxing, while not being boxers, against guys more skilled in boxing than themselves, where the overwhelming chances were that they would lose and possibly get KO'd. Both guys still took the fight despite all of that because the pay day was massive for them and they thought they didn't have much to lose and plenty to win in terms of money. I explicitly said Ben's situation was more humiliating (because his opponent was much lower level and so was the pay, but then again, so is Ben), so your point is...?

 

[Joshuaace]

So the source is a guy who bawled like a little girl over a minor flesh wound? Now he is outing information most likely told to him in confidence by a friend, if told to him at all.

No hespect for Belal.

 

[MCS]

Askren doesn't get embarrassed. He'd first need to give a damn to be. 500k is good money, but the event generated a lot. Askren, like every wrestler, made zero from wrestling on a high level, and spent most of his run outside big fights. So I hope he got a back-end. Did it for the pay only. It's not like it was a important fight for accolades. Meaningless celebrity nonsense.

 

[dogsdonutsdragons]

it's a good argument. But doesn't change what Ben did. I don't see it necessarily better than throwing a fight. I bet he made tens and thousand of people lose money for his deception too. That's almost a crime.

i think given the state of fighter pay i wont knock a guy for taking a pay day or faking a freak show of a fight. any logical person knew not to buy the fight. they knew it was a freak show. you get what you paid for. it should have been an exhibition though and not sanctioned as a real fight. because it was, i understand how this s bad for the sport and the consumer. but I was watching at the start. i have seen guys go through 20 years careers now. i wont knock bob sapp or many others who have thrown fights later on in their careers. its sucks its in the sport but there is so much crookedness to it all it seems like a waste to care. i care about the fighters get paid more than it being an actual sport because it clearly is to political and corrupt for that.

you can also make all your friends and family rich by throwing a fight. you can double your pay. gambling on fights is legal and part of the business. fighter pay is to low to not expect shady business. boxing is riddled with it. this is a money making machine. modern day gladiators. gladiators are slaves to the bigger system. gotta do what you can do to make it out of the sport with money

 

[1s1k]

Askren doesn't get embarrassed. He'd first need to give a damn to be. 500k is good money, but the event generated a lot. Askren, like every wrestler, made zero from wrestling on a high level, and spent most of his run outside big fights. So I hope he got a back-end. Did it for the pay only. It's not like it was a important fight for accolades. Meaningless celebrity nonsense.

He said he made more for this one round of boxing than he did his entire pre-UFC career. I don’t understand why people are shocked at what Belal said because Ben himself said it a dozen times that if Jake is any good he will lose. It’s just that he didn’t think Jake was that great and he thought he could wear him down.

 

[Sanserif]

The thing i find unexpected and surprising is how askren lost. In only the second or thereabouts attack he faced from paul, he fell for a standard 1-2 from.distance under no pressure whatsoever. It was the kind of basic combo he had successfully dodged or tied up in all his years at mma fighting. He literally stood stock still for the cross to hit him after the set up jab. Contrary to popular opinion he had shown more than sufficient head movement during his fights for Ballater and ONE to hardly ever be tagged seriously and he faced quite a few lethal strikers in his time. Askren was never going to be a good boxer but that was almost literally getting KO with the second punch combo of any kind from paul. I would have expected getting caught in an exchange with him or getug one of his punches slipped and then countered successfully but the way he was KO was the way a guy who had never fought before in any kind of striking fight would lose...

 

[Pancake Sprawl]

Anyone with functioning eyes also knew he would lose if Paul had any ability. Has Ben ever even landed a standing punch in his 20+ fights? Hard to win a punching contest without punches.

Thinking he could have dominated Khabib and Colby is just laughable.

he landed the very first punch of the fight on Jake Paul. i thought Askren would win by making the fight boring with tons of clinching. he did it once but that was it.

 

[Reign009]

Yeah, no doubt that this was just a big money grab.

He did make the biggest payday of his career though.

 

[cheesus]

Let it go man.

 

[The Chosen]

I wonder if his wife respects him still

 

[The Chosen]

Niether has fought a wrestler close to the level of Askren.


You don't make a freestyle Olympic team by being "unathletic" lol

Ben is embarrassingly unathletic and awkward, he only relied on his strength and wrestling skill

 

[TSK]

It is pretty clear he came there to get KTFO
He looked fat, out of shape, no conditioning and he is a smart guy: he knows his skills, his weakness, his limits. He knows he has some of the worse boxing skills in the entire UFC history.
But 500k is 500k
He has 3 kids, he needs haircuts now and then

This. His mma career is over, and with it a good bit of earning potential (obviously he can coach and open a wrestling gym). $500k is a pretty nice payday for someone in that situation, not to mention any money he got from sponsors.l (who knew a ton of eye balls were going to be on the event).

 

[Eric Silva 2.0]

My question is do you think it was a completely legit TKO or do you think Askren played it up (while still being legit knocked down) and gave up on purpose? Makes sense from his perspective of taking a dive with as little damage as possible

ala Cerrone vs Conor.

 

[91 seconds]

People have a warped perception about mma fighters abilities. They think since mma encompasses a wide variety of aspects of combat that the practitioner will be somewhat competent in all of them. I never believed this to be true. I understand Ben is just that bad at striking but I wouldn't be shocked in the least if Jake was capable of ruining other UFC fighters in a boxing ring. They are two different sports. Reminds me of the Liddell vs Tyson discussions where people actually think it would work in Chucks favor to throw a fucking head kick. If you want him to die then that's an understandable take.

The interview Ben did with Teddy Atlas before the fight showed the writing on the wall. There was a point in their conversation where Teddy looks down in disdain asking Ben why he is doing this..basically wondering why he's going to humiliate himself again on such a scale all for some monetary gain rather than keep the little dignity he has left. It blew my mind so many people favored Ben.

 

[Crash Lance]

People have a warped perception about mma fighters abilities. They think since mma encompasses a wide variety of aspects of combat that the practitioner will be somewhat competent in all of them. I never believed this to be true. I understand Ben is just that bad at striking but I wouldn't be shocked in the least if Jake was capable of ruining other UFC fighters in a boxing ring. They are two different sports. Reminds me of the Liddell vs Tyson discussions where people actually think it would work in Chucks favor to throw a fucking head kick. If you want him to die then that's an understandable take.

There was at least one interview where Liddell mentioned MMA fights against Tyson (and every other Elite Level Boxer that has won many Boxing fights).

Liddell said that, if he was in an MMA fight against Tyson, he "would just take him down" with his Wrestling techniques.

Chuck Liddell: "I would just take him down."

Unless I'm mistaken, Liddell did very well in college wrestling and high school wrestling.

 

[91 seconds]

There was at least one interview where Liddell mentioned MMA fights against Tyson (and every other Elite Level Boxer that has won many Boxing fights).

Liddell said that, if he was in an MMA fight against Tyson, he "would just take him down" with his Wrestling techniques.

Chuck Liddell: "I would just take him down."

Unless I'm mistaken, Liddell did very well in college wrestling and high school wrestling.

Yeah that would be the smart and obvious thing for him to do. I was referring to the thread on Sherdog that was made about that hypothetical fight where there were a few posters who were actually suggesting head kicks.

 

[Ninjaskillz6&9yakuza]

He literally said this in every interview.

 

[Ninjaskillz6&9yakuza]

Why Ben in particular? Do you really think Conor even in the midst of his largest coke binge fueled fantasies ever thought he was going to beat Floyd? Both got the biggest payday of their lives knowing they were going to end up coping a beating.

Yes. Conor is delusional like that. It sometimes works in his favor...

 

[kyokugen86]

No one really expects Askren to win a boxing match tbh.

 

[HadoukenHendo]

no dummy he said that somewhere along the bs( in hindsight) he said during the build up.

Everyone knew Paul could box. Ben didn't say if Paul had ANy boxing ability he would lose. Which is what he told Belal.

just love making yourself look silly huh