Ben Askren explains what Tyron Woodley needs to do to “knock Colby out”

Ben Askren believes he knows what Tyron Woodley needs to do in order to knock out Colby Covington in the main event of UFC on ESPN 11 this weekend.

Woodley will enter his fight with Covington on a two-fight skid, having given up back-to-back decisions to Kamaru Usman and Gilbert Burns. Askren believes that, in order to return to his old habit of knocking his opponents out, Woodley needs to get out of his own head and let his hands fly.

“One of his biggest issues for his competitive career, whether it’s fighting or wrestling, is he just doesn’t pull the trigger sometimes,” Askren said of Woodley on Submission Radio. “He gets inside and he just thinks too much. He’s really intelligent and he just thinks a lot about it, and I think that was kind of what happened with the Gilbert Burns fight. I know that’s what happened with the [Usman] fight. And so I’m hoping that gets fixed and he gets in there and lets his hands go. And if he lets his hands go, he should knock Colby out.”

“It’s just him. When he went on that streak, he just let his hands go and he was getting tons of knockdowns and some knockouts, and that’s kind of what he’s got to get back to.”

While Woodley has lost back-to-back fights, Askren believes the former champion could conceivably work his way back to a welterweight title shot with relative ease.

“He’s fought them both,” he said, referencing Woodley’s losses to Usman and Burns, who will fight for the welterweight title in December. “I think that adds to the story, is like, hey, let me get that one back. You got me once, I had a terrible performance and I want to get it back, let me have it. And, again, Leon Edwards is not getting a title shot as is. That’s for sure. Jorge Masvidal, it’s probably unlikely that he’s getting one. So, I think it is the winner of Colby and Tyron, for sure.”

Do you think Tyron Woodley will get back to winning ways this weekend?