Retired UFC welterweight Ben Askren is currently engaged in a social media beef with YouTube star Logan Paul. Earlier this week Paul offered any social media influencer who is able to beat him in a wrestling match $10,000.
As you’d expect a bunch of MMA fighters wanted a piece of that action including ‘Funky’ who took to Twitter to accept the challenge and tell Paul exactly how a potential fight would go down.
“I’ll pin you in less than a minute, bad hip and all,” Askren wrote.
Paul quickly fired back at Askren reminding the retired fighter of his quick knockout loss to Jorge ‘Gamebred’ Masvidal at UFC 239 in July 2019.
Askren responded to point out the many fans who had got excited by the prospect of him pinning the YouTuber and once again ask Paul if he accepts the match-up. He even said 36 seconds is all he’d need to score the victory.
While this is all a bit of fun it seems Askren is serious about getting back to fighting at some point. While ‘Funky’ admits he will never fully commit to fighting again he is likely to accept another UFC bout against the right opponent for good money.
Speaking on the latest episode of his Rokfin podcast Askren explained while he will never return to fighting full-time he “probably would” take a one-off fight provided he was paid correctly, he said.
“So here’s the deal: I would never make like full-fledge, ‘Hey, I’m gonna go fight, I’m gonna chase the title’.But I love combat. I enjoy wrestling. I enjoy fighting. So yeah, if someone said, ‘Here’s some money, go fight one time. Here’s the right opponent, let’s have some fun.’ I probably would, you know?”
How quickly do you think Ben Askren would pin Logan Paul?