Rogan on Askren: Every motherf@$%er is in trouble
Joe Rogan: “There’s a reason why he’s undefeated and he hasn’t been hit in several fights.”
The UFC recently swapped the arguable G.O.A.T. Demetrious Johnson for the relatively unheralded Ben Askren, who was retired. To the casual fan, it makes no sense. But it does – Ben Askren may be the welterweight G.O.A.T. and we are going to find out, at last.
UFC color commentator Joe Rogan discussed on the JRE MMA Show #48.
Everybody’s in trouble, said Rogan, as transcribed by Nathan Zur for Sherdog. There’s a lot of mother***ers in trouble if Ben Askren gets a hold of you. You’re like ‘why can’t I get up?’
There’s a reason why he’s undefeated and he hasn’t been hit in several fights. I had him on the podcast because I wanted to let people know about him. I’ve been a big fan of Ben Askren’s from back when he was a Bellator champion.
If you watch his fights in Bellator against Koreshkov and Lima — Lima’s a beast and he just dominated him. Lima f***s people up, Lima’s a dangerous, dangerous cat and Ben Askren was like ‘whoops you’re on your back again, you can’t get up and you’re taking punches.’ It’s just a different caliber of wrestling.
I’ve said it many, many times — it’s the most important skill for MMA. It’s wrestling. It dictates where the fight takes place. If you want to stand up, the guy can’t take you down – Chuck Liddell style – and if you want to go to the ground, you’re the one who gets to dictate where the fight takes place. If you’re the superior wrestler, it’s the best base for MMA. I really believe that.
Askren heads to New York this weekend to speak with the UFC about his first fight, which he hopes is early in 2019.