Ben Askren established himself in the mixed martial arts and boxing worlds despite retiring in 2019. Among one of the ex-fighter’s most popular matches was in April 2021 against Jake Paul, who won. And despite the fact that fighters tend to hurl insults at each other before matches, Jake shared his regards to Ben six years later after Ben underwent a double lung transplant following a severe case of pneumonia.
Below, learn all about Ben, his career and his life now.
Ben won two state championships as a high school student at Arrowhead High School in Wisconsin and continued to compete in wrestling in college at the University of Missouri. During his time there, he won the National Collegiate Athletic Association championship in 2006 and 2007. He’s now an inductee in the University of Missouri Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame.
After graduating from the University of Missouri in 2007, Ben went on to compete on the U.S. team for freestyle wrestling at the 2008 Summer Olympics. While he didn’t win medals there, Ben still competed in wrestling tournaments here and there; for example, in 2010, he flipped the table by defeating Ivan Fundora — who beat Ben at the Olympics — at the Cerro Pelado International in Cuba.
Jake never gave up against an opponent. After making his MMA debut in 2009, Ben has gone on to rack up a number of impressive accomplishments and is most well-known for being the Bellator welterweight champion and the ONE Welterweight Champion. He also never lost a fight during his contract with ONE Championship and left the organization with a headline-making 18-0-1 record when he signed on to fight with the UFC in November 2018. The following year, he stepped down from professional MMA fights.
