UFC Singapore’s Ben Askren on loss to Maia: ‘Made a bad decision and I failed’

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Ben Askren reflects on his submission loss to Demian Maia at UFC Singapore.

Ben Askren might be one of the best wrestlers in the world, but his wrestling was no match for Demian Maia’s Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 162 main event at Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kallang, Singapore.

Askren, who held his own against Maia in the striking department, was able to secure two takedowns against Maia but was swept and reversed on both occasions. The former ONE FC and Bellator welterweight champion was swept and submitted with a rear-naked choke in the third round and believes overconfidence may have played a factor in the result.

“Yeah, I mean kind of as we planned, there was a couple of positions, I would have like to get to a Muay Thai clinch more often, but he was able to stay out of that,” Askren said in a post-fight interview at Kallang’s Singapore Indoor Stadium (h/t BJPenn.com). “But, I was landing the punches I wanted to land. I was landing my uppercut really well and then I was getting takedowns. I think I had four or five takedowns I believe,” Ben Askren said. “And then I made a really bad decision. I remember thinking I won the first round. You know, but who knows that the judges say, they are crazy. But I felt like I won the first two rounds and when I got reversed in the third round, I looked up at the clock and thought oh I have a minute left. Ok so I have to get a reversal to win this round. And we had obviously trained so much back in camp and I had a really good jiu-jitsu guy and I guess I was overconfident. I guess there is a reason he is the best grappler in the division, possibly in MMA ever. You know I was fairly confident that when I went for that reversal I was going to get it. But I didn’t, I failed and that was obviously the outcome.”

‘Funky’ later apologized to his fans for letting them down.

“Made a bad decision and I failed. Sorry to everyone who I let down,” Askren posted on Twitter.

Losing to Maia was a huge setback for Askren, as the MMA veteran was hoping to rebound from his five-second KO loss to Jorge Masvidal and etch his name into the official top-ten welterweight rankings. Instead, Askren could find himself plummet to the bottom of the rankings after the UFC updates its official list in the coming days. Askren is now 1-2 in the UFC and desperately needs to win his next fight to stay relevant.