Askren ready to focus on his next challenges
“I’M done.”
With those words, champion mixed martial arts fighter Ben “Funky” Askren dropped the curtains on what was a stellar career that saw him compile an 18-0 record with one no contest in eight years of parading his wares.
Believing now is the right time to move on and take on new challenges, the 33-year-old Askren, a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, made his fight last Friday at ONE Championship’s “Immortal Pursuit” event in Singapore against Japanese legend Shinya Aoki his swan song.
And just like what he did throughout his career, Mr. Askren took the impressive route in his last fight, stopping Mr. Aoki by technical knockout ( punches) 57 seconds into the opening round to successfully defend his ONE world welterweight title for the third straight time and exit the game on top of his game.
“I’m done. I appreciate everything that happened in my career but now it’s time to move on and take on new things,” said Mr. Askren, a champion collegiate wrestler and an Olympian, to members of the media following his victory over Mr. Aoki at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
In beating Evolve MMA teammate Aoki, Mr. Askren played to his strength to the hilt.
After Mr. Aoki pulled the American into his patented guard, Mr. Askren saw an open- ing to unleash heavy blows with ease.
Mr. Aoki started to cover up to defend himself, but the champion was relentless in pouring down a barrage of solid punches that left the referee with no other choice but to stop the fight even before it hit the one-minute mark.
Exiting the way he did, Mr. Askren said he could not have asked for a better ending to a career that had him going to various MMA promotions and being a champion, notably with Bellator MMA and ONE Championship.
“That was a satisfying way to go out. I couldn’t have written a better script than that,” he said.
“I knew when I hit him (Aoki) hard tonight then I can rock him. Which was what exactly happened,” added Mr. Askren as he underscored that while he respects Mr. Aoki’s abilities as a fighter, the outcome of their title fight was not necessarily surprising to him.
Now out of the MMA game as a fighter, Mr. Askren said he will channel his focus on his growing family and initially go back home and rest.
He also plans to continue coaching as well as prepare for his work as an executive with ONE Championship.
The latter has him very excited, seeing how ONE has grown as an entity since joining it in 2014.
“I was able to see this company grow up. It has grown exponentially since I came on board and I’m very happy for it. I’m going to stay in it for an executive role and I’m very excited,” he said.
Adding, “I appreciate and fully support its push to build homegrown Asian MMA stars. And throughout the years it has done successfully so like in Myanmar where it has Aung La N’Sang (reigning middleweight champion) and in the Philippines with Eduard Folayang.”
Next stop for ONE Championship is “ONE: Warriors of the World” happening on Dec. 9 in Bangkok, Thailand.
It will feature the title clash between ONE world strawweight champion Yoshitaka Naito of Japan and challenger Alex Silva of Brazil.