Askren and Muhammad face of July 18th at RAF 11, live in Milwaukee WI, streaming on FOX Nation
Ben Askren is competing again. On July 18 in Milwaukee, the 2008 Olympian and former Bellator and ONE welterweight champion will face Belal Muhammad in the co-main event of RAF 11 at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena, according to MMA Fighting. The bout will be contested at cruiserweight under freestyle rules and streamed on FOX Nation.
It will be his last match. Askren has confirmed as much, calling it a one-off return.
The context matters. In early June 2025, a staph infection on Askren’s elbow turned into necrotizing pneumonia. He was placed in a medically induced coma, was legally pronounced dead four times by his own account, and underwent a double lung transplant on June 30, 2025. He came out of his 45-day coma roughly 50 pounds lighter and now lives on lifelong anti-rejection medication. That he is preparing to compete at all, in any format, reframes what this booking actually is.
RAF is the wrestling promotion Askren signed with as its first athlete in May 2025, before the illness. He has remained involved as an analyst and ambassador since his recovery and has been back coaching at his Wisconsin academy since early this year. Now he’s on the card himself.
The stylistic question is an intriguing one. Muhammad, who held UFC welterweight gold before dropping the title to Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 315 last May, is a pressure fighter with a strong top game and a chain-wrestling base sharpened over a long MMA career, though, as Askren has noted publicly, not the high-level amateur wrestling pedigree he himself brings. Askren’s funk, the leg-riding, the limp-arm escapes, the head-inside single, all of it built decades of muscle memory. Whether that memory survives transplant recovery and translates against a fighter five years his junior, on a freestyle ruleset rather than the folkstyle Askren grew up on, is the entire subtext of the booking.
It’s also Askren’s 42nd birthday that day, and he’s in his home state.
The main event of RAF 11 is Arman Tsarukyan against Colby Covington, two of the more decorated wrestlers currently active in MMA at lightweight and welterweight respectively. Tsarukyan’s chain-wrestling and scrambling have defined his climb at 155. Covington’s pace and re-shot volume defined his title runs at 170. On RAF’s freestyle ruleset: exposure points, no riding time, the matchup carries genuine technical weight beyond the names.
That’s the framing of the card. Askren-Muhammad sits underneath the headliner as the co-main but reads as the emotional centrepiece, for reasons that have nothing to do with rankings.
For those who’ve followed Askren’s career, the lineage is hard to ignore. Two-time NCAA Division I champion at Missouri. Hodge Trophy winner. 2008 Olympian. A grappling coach whose students have included some of the most accomplished wrestlers in MMA. He retired from MMA in 2019 with a record of 19-2 (1 NC), the losses coming late to Jorge Masvidal and Demian Maia and the no-contest stemming from the overturned Robbie Lawler decision. The coaching chapter and the analyst chapter at RAF have continued.
This is his first wrestling match in seven years, and the closing of the competitive chapter.
RAF 11 is scheduled for July 18 at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena, with the broadcast on FOX Nation. The promotion is expected to release the full card and additional matchups closer to the event.
