Ben Askren was once considered one of the greatest MMA fighters in the world, even finding a spot on Joe Rogan’s GOAT list.

This was of course prior to ‘Funky’ making his Octagon debut in 2019, when he sported a perfect professional record of 18-0 and had captured championships in both Bellator and ONE.

After picking up a controversial technical submission victory over Robbie Lawler in his UFC debut, Ben Askren appeared to be living up to the hype. However, following consecutive stoppage losses to Jorge Masvidal and Demian Maia in his next efforts, ‘Funky’ was subsequently removed from the MMA GOAT conversation.

During a recent appearance on Lex Fridman’s podcast, Askren opened up on failing to live up to the expectations of Joe Rogan and many other fight fans.

“I didn’t prove it. I don’t deserve it. So it’s like, had I somehow gotten to convince Dana White, say we go and convince him in 2013 to make me an offer. And I didn’t even need a good offer, I needed any offer. Had I gotten the offer then, maybe the outcome’s different, right?” Ben Askren said. “But given (everything), I would never expect anyone to think of me that way. I didn’t prove it. I know, I know what I was and I am good with that. And yeah, other people never got to see that.”

Ben Askren most recently took his talents to the squared circle where he suffered a nasty first round knockout loss to Jake Paul. ‘Funky’ had never competed in boxing prior to the matchup and was of course best known in MMA for his abilities as a wrestler.

During his ten-year mixed martial arts career Askren scored victories over the likes of Shinya Aoki, Andrey Koreshkov, Douglas Lima, Jay Heiron, Lyman Good, among others.