Former UFC fighter Ben Askren claims he can beat Jake Paul in any type of combat sport
YouTuber Jake Paul called out some big names this past weekend, after knocking out former NBA guard Nate Robinson. Ben Askren was one, along with Conor McGregor and Dillon Danis.
Even before the fight happened on Saturday night, on the card headlined by Mike Tyson vs. Roy Jones Jr., Jake Paul and Ben Askren had taken digs at each other on Twitter.
Speaking to Submission Radio, Ben Askren addressed Jake Paul's challenge and said that he would beat him in any form of combat sports.
Ben Askren says "name the style, I'll win"
Jake Paul's knockout of Nate Robinson was indeed an impressive sight. However, given how inexperienced the former basketball player looked inside the ring, Ben Askren is not ready to give Paul credit.
"I mean, this guy’s (Nate Robinson) a very elite athlete, he was a great basketball player – he couldn’t box worth a damn. So, I guess Jake Paul has as least enough power to put Nate Robinson to sleep. I don’t really know if that tells us very much..."
The former Olympian wrestler was welterweight champion at Bellator and ONE Championship, but did not have a great run in UFC. Nevertheless, Ben Askren believes there will always be a "gap" between fighters and non-fighters. He claimed there is something that non-fighters do not understand until they go up against an actual athlete.
Ben Askren has said that he would have no qualms about fighting Jake Paul for a good sum of money. He is confident about beating him in any style of fighting, be it Muay Thai, kickboxing, boxing, or anything else.
"Most people are like, oh, I don’t know why Ben Askren would stoop to that level. It’s like, listen, when I was in high school, one of the fun things to do was, a bunch of dudes would come over to the house, we’d put on some boxing gloves and we’d try to beat the shit out of each other. Like, we did that for free, we just did that for fun. And now you’re telling me you’re gonna pay me a whole bunch of money to beat up a YouTube star. Like, I don’t know, that just sounds like a fun Friday night to me. Muay Thai, kickboxing, boxing, Lethwei. Name the style. You name the style, I’ll win."
Given that Nate Robinson made $600,000 on top of the PPV percentage, despite losing Saturday's fight, Ben Askren's motivation is certainly not misplaced.
Would you like to see Jake Paul square off against Ben Askren? Sound off in the comments.