Is Ben Askren currently the UFC's biggest star? He thinks so
LAS VEGAS — Ben Askren (19-0) leans back in his chair and smirks. The one-time Bellator and One welterweight champion will fight Jorge Masvidal (33-13) in one of the most compelling bouts on the main card of UFC 239 on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena, just his second fight with the world’s most dominant MMA promotion.
For years, Askren was on the outside looking in, desperate for an opportunity to prove he was the best 170-pounder in the world. Instead, most of the notoriety he got came from a long-running feud with UFC president Dana White.
But just four months into his UFC career, things have changed.
“I’m kind of shocked by the perceptual shift of the audience toward me in I’d say the last six months or so,” Askren said Wednesday before a public workout at the MGM Grand. “It’s been kind of mind-blowing. I went from a guy who was, I am not sure exactly how to describe this, but who was disliked or the heel, or somewhere in that category, to the guy who everybody loves.
“It’s kind of funny to watch this, because I don’t feel I’ve changed. I don’t feel I’ve turned a corner. I’m the same person, but for some reason, there has been this perceptual shift of people’s thoughts toward me.”
Askren, though, has become one of the UFC’s most sought-after fighters, by fans and by media.
It’s his second fight in the UFC and his second fight in Las Vegas, known as “The Fight Capital of the World.” Askren takes no pride from that fact and simply is out to get another win and move closer to a shot at the championship.
But being in prominent positions on the big cards does have its benefits.
“I’m making good money, and deservedly so,” he said. “I might be the biggest star the UFC has right now. Put that in the headline.”
It may not be fully accurate, but it’s not far off. It won’t take long, in a roll call of the sport’s biggest stars, to come to his name.
Askren fighting to prove he’s the best in the world
The big stars make the big money, which is why former featherweight and lightweight champion Conor McGregor and boxers Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao have become fixtures on the annual list Forbes compiles of the highest-paid athletes in sports.
If you think Askren is motivated by money, though, you’re wrong. And while he fully expects to be rich as he matures, his fortune is going to come, he believes, from his business acumen and not from his fighting prowess.
“Financially, I’m doing pretty well for myself,” he said. “That being said, I’ve made one or two stupid financial moves. I bought a Tesla, but besides that, I’m really basic. I don’t live a flashy lifestyle. I like my jeans and T-shirt and my sandals. I’ve been able to put a lot of money away that I’ve fought for. I’ve been able to start a handful of businesses, all of which are doing really well.
“So I am literally fighting, I’ve come out of retirement, solely to prove I’m the best in the world. If I didn’t have the opportunity to do that, I would be gone right now. I don’t need or want fame. I don’t need to do this for the money. I can make it other ways.”
He has a lot of things going for him as a fighter, but what serves him best in the cage is also what is helping his businesses succeed and also what’s helping make him so popular. Askren’’s a very bright man who sees the bigger picture.
He understands the art of promotion and how to manipulate his audience. From a business standpoint, he has a great sense of what his customers want and how to move the business to the next level.
It’s why he says the money he makes from fighting won’t be life-changing, for him or his children. It’s going to be what he does with his businesses that alters his life and the lives of his family members.
He’s setting the groundwork for that now.
But as he prepares to take on one of the most exciting fighters of his time in Masvidal, it’s his mind and not his athleticism that gives him the best chance to win.
Duke Roufus on Askren: ‘Ben’s super wise’
He’s not explosive or extraordinarily powerful, like his close friend and teammate, ex-welterweight champion Tyron Woodley. But coach Duke Roufus said Askren is a genius and understands the defensive aspect of the sport so well that he’s very difficult to hit.
“I’ll get in there with him and I’ll go at him and try to hit him with everything, and I’ll never touch him,” said Roufus, who was a world-class kickboxer in his time. “Not many people study the defensive aspects of fighting like he does. I hate it when I go into fights with one of my guys where I say, ‘OK, it’s 50-50. We may knock this guy out but there’s an even chance he could knock us out.’ I hate having to go in there and pick my guys up off of the canvas.
“Ben is super wise and so intelligent. He really knows what he is doing in there. In some ways, he’s like a great middle linebacker in football in that he knows how to read the keys. If I step this way, he knows it’s going to be a hook. If I put my weight down, he knows it’s an overhand. When my weight goes up, he knows it’s a kick. He reads the keys and is so awesome at it. We don’t even talk when we train. I just throw everything at him and he picks it up. It’s a thing of beauty.”
Askren and his team are supremely confident that he’ll be successful on Saturday. He doesn’t hesitate to tweak Masvidal, knowing that once his words make it into the media that Masvidal will hear about it and it will make him want to kill Askren all the more.
Askren will let Masvidal’s aggression work against him.
Askren had to learn on the fly because he was literally thrown to the wolves early in his MMA career when he admits he was not prepared for the level of opposition he was facing.
“I didn’t really know what I was doing,” he said.
He was 5-0 and met Dan Hornbuckle, who was 21-2, in the finals of the Bellator welterweight tournament at Bellator 22.
He managed to figure out a way and he’s done that each time out. He’s had few close fights and, except for his UFC debut when he was spiked early by ex-champ Robbie Lawler, hasn’t been in a position where it looked like he’d lose.
A win Saturday will put him on the precipice of a title and all that comes with that. Many of the UFC champions, including Chuck Liddell, McGregor, Ronda Rousey and Jon Jones, used their platform to become mainstream stars.
Askren is in the midst of doing just that even though it’s not his intention.
“I wanted this opportunity [to fight in the UFC] years ago, because I felt I was the best in the world and I wanted to prove it against the guys everyone thought were the best in the world,” Askren said. “I just didn’t get the opportunity. At one point, I kind of realized it wasn’t going to happen for me and it was time to move on in my life. I was never going to keep fighting because I needed the money or just because I loved to fight.
“I have a vision for what I want to do with my life and when it looked like I wasn’t going to be able to prove my point, I retired and was walking away. And it’s funny how things work: This UFC opportunity came up and now I can back up all the words I’ve said over the years. People say to me, ‘You have talked so big, aren’t you worried you’ve put pressure on yourself?’ And I just laugh at that. I know what I am capable of doing. And now that I have this opportunity, I’m going to prove I knew what I was talking about.”
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