Ben Askren gives update on fighting future after first loss

Following his record-setting knockout loss to Jorge Masvidal at UFC 239, Ben Askren doesn’t sound ready to stop fighting. Askren suffered his first professional MMA loss to Masvidal this past weekend, and on Monday he provided an update on his fighting future.

During an interview with ESPN’s Ariel Helwani, Ben Askren was asked if he has plans to keep fighting following his loss, and he responded with a quick “yes”.

“Yeah. I mean obviously I haven’t even thought of my path forward. I had such a nice path set up and I did it for myself. Jorge Masvidal was my pick, I went to London and said I would fight the winner of Till vs Masvidal and I got it. That was who I wanted to fight and that was my path to a title. I had created all this hype and momentum, I was right where I wanted to be. I was right on the precipice of having the title shot against Usman if I go and win that fight on Saturday night, and now it’s like I haven’t really thought about what’s my path forward.”

Ben Askren will have some time to figure out his next plan back towards the UFC’s welterweight title and will use his medical suspension to give him time away and put together a new plan.

“I was all-in on one thing happening, the other thing happened, so I guess I have to take some time to re-group. I’m assuming I’ll be suspended for a significant amount of time without any training due to the fact that I went unconscious, so, I will have some time to plot my path forward.”

Now that he will have some time away to recover from his first professional loss, Ben Askren wants to keep fighting and also told Helwani that he doesn’t plan on changing anything in terms of the way he trash talks opponents or the way he fights.

After suffering his first loss, @Benaskren has no plans to approach trash talk differently (via @arielhelwani) pic.twitter.com/Rl3SmnFjrs

— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) July 8, 2019

Who do you think Ben Askren should face when he returns?

on 7/8/2019