Ben Askren: It’s embarrassing, I got knocked out by Jake Paul

By Albert Craine - 04/18/2021 - Comments

Ben Askren admits that his first-round knockout loss to YouTuber Jake Paul was “embarrassing” for him last Saturday night, and he feels that any criticism he receives from fans is deserving.

The former UFC fighter and Olympic wrestler Askren was making his debut in boxing after an 11-week training camp, which amounted to being a cram course in boxing.

Askren was being asked to learn in 11 weeks what takes boxers years to learn. It wasn’t possible, given his advanced age, background, and physical conditioning, which was poor.

He was too fat to be competing with an in-shape 24-year-old Jake, who had the speed, youth, and advantage. To add to all that, Jake has been boxing for a lot longer, and he has a love for the sport.

The dedication that Jake for boxing showed in destroying Askren, who at this point in his life is no longer competing in MMA, and is basically just a wrestling coach.

Askren won’t be back

“I will not be back again,” said Asken after the fight. “I really thought I could do better. It wasn’t fun. I probably deserve it,” said Askren when told that he’s going to receive ‘undeserved’ criticism.

“Because I got knocked out by f*** Jake Paul, it’s embarrassing. I really don’t give a s***. There’s a pizza waiting in my hotel room.

Ben Askren: It's embarrassing, I got knocked out by Jake Paul

“I’m going to go eat that and fly home and hang out with my kids tomorrow, and on Monday, I’ll probably be at wrestling practice.

“I heard my coach Mike say that I was overreacting to his feints, and that was probably. That was probably it. I shouldn’t have reacted to his feints.

“If the referee had let me grapple a little bit more, that would have helped me,” said Askren.

It would be interesting to know if Askren has been eating pizzas the entire training camp. That might explain why he had a potbelly during the fight. If he’s been stuffing pizzas down his gullet.

The way that Askren was talking about wanting to get back to his dressing room so could start eating his pizza, sent alarm bells on whether he’d been eating that kind of food during camp.

Jake was in tears after the fight, making a big deal of his win over the fat, out-of-shape former MMA fighter Askren. He didn’t win anything.

The performance by Jake didn’t give one the sense that he’s going to use this victory to begin taking on world-level cruiserweight. Indeed, if anything, Jake will continue to handpick weak fighters that he knows he can beat.

Jake Paul needs to step up

For the 24-year-old Jake, he needs to step up against a higher caliber opposition, but it doesn’t seem likely. What Jake appears to be doing is picking out guys that he knows he can beat.

YouTube video

What Jake appears to be doing is keeping his Mayweather-esque business going of selecting guys that he can beat with 100% certainty to make money.

He’s not going to treat his career the way a real professional fighter would be fighting top contenders to get ranked, and then fighting for a world title. The closest that Jake will get to a title is the Triller trinket belt he got for beating the out of shake Askren.

Jake has the power to beat world level, but he would need more than that for him to defeat a top 15 cruiserweight.

For one, they wouldn’t come into the fight with Jake with a potbelly the way Askren did.

Jake would be facing a well-conditioned fighter that would throwing punches back with mean intentions, and it could go badly for him. I can only imagine what would happen to Jake if he had to take on cruiserweight Yuniel Dorticos.