Ben Askren opens up on 5-second KO loss to Jorge Masvidal

Over the weekend, Ben Askren found himself on the wrong end of the new record for the fastest KO in UFC history, succumbing to a Jorge Masvidal flying knee just five seconds into their UFC 239 scrap.

Less than 48 hours removed from this violent knockout loss, the former ONE and Bellator welterweight champ appeared on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show to give his take on the way things went down.

https://youtu.be/1Hqkbtn80Q0

“Losses happen, Saturday night was obviously not ideal for myself, but I got nothing to complain about,” a candid Ben Askren said. “There’s a little part of my memory that’s blank there. I remember being in the cage with him, I don’t remember the flying knee. When I can remember, I was like ‘oh shit, I lost to Jorge Masvidal, this freaking sucks.’ Everyone else was more worried about me than I was about myself. I didn’t really have any pain of any sort. Not a headache, nothing in my face hurts. I was just like ‘ah Jesus, I lost to Jorge Masvidal. How did I lose to him? How fast it?’

“I could tell it was fast cause I wasn’t sweaty or sore or anything. I knew it was fast, I just didn’t know exactly how fast it was. Apparently I set a record of some sort.”

Nobody could have predicted Jorge Masvidal would begin this fight as fast and furiously as he did, but Ben Askren claims he did have a suspicion that his foe might attempt something wild early on.

“I was ready for knees, and I did say to Duke multiple times in the back ‘I think he’s going to try something crazy right away.’ I don’t know if you remember the [Darren] Till fight, he ran across the ring and kicked Till in the balls in the first four seconds. I just had a inkling that he was going to try something right away,” Askren said.

While this is of course not the outcome Ben Askren was hoping for, he couldn’t help but commend Jorge Masvidal — who he still doesn’t like, for the record — on his handiwork in the cage.

“I always thought, ‘who the hell gets flying kneed? Can’t you see that coming? It’s coming from so far away!’ When I watched the film — I don’t like Jorge at all — but that was a damn good flying knee,” he said. “He hit it fast and explosively, he got some serious air time on it, and then obviously connected in the right spot.”

What do you think of these comments from Ben Askren?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 7/8/2019.