Getty Ben Askren (R) shoves Jake Paul as they face off during a news conference for Triller Fight Club's inaugural 2021 boxing event at The Venetian Las Vegas on March 26, 2021 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Former Bellator and ONE welterweight champion Ben Askren recently gave his thoughts about the big boxing match on Sunday night between Jake Paul and Tyron Woodley.
Askren is familiar with both men. He trained with Woodley for years and remains friends with the former UFC welterweight champion. On the other end, “Funky” was Paul’s last boxing opponent.
An interesting wrinkle with Paul vs. Woodley, which airs on August 29, 2021, via Showtime PPV starting at 8 p.m. ET, is that Woodley actually worked Askren’s corner for his fight with Paul. And Woodley and “The Problem Child” got into an argument backstage with Paul while he got his hands wrapped to box Askren, which was one of the reasons why the boxing match came together.
The boxing match did not go Askren’s way in the slightest, not even making it out of the first frame before The Problem Child knocked him down. The referee called off the fight a few seconds after Funky got back to his feet, awarding the victory to Paul via first-round TKO.
It was Askren’s third professional loss in a row, however the two preceding his defeat to Paul were to two high-caliber UFC fighters inside the Octagon.
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Askren Said He Would Feel ‘Much Better’ About His Loss to Paul If Woodley Loses to the YouTuber Also
So one thing is clear, Askren will be watching on Sunday night and he recently spoke with TMZ about the fight. Unsurprisingly, Funky believes it “unlikely” that The Problem Child will defeat the former UFC champ inside the boxing ring, but did admit that Paul does “hit hard.”
Askren also said that should Paul get his hand raised at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Clevland, Ohio, he would feel “much better” about losing to the social media sensation.
“I’m still not under the conclusion that (Jake) is a good boxer,” Askren said via Middle Easy. “He hit me one time really good, but it wasn’t like he beat me soundly over six rounds. He does hit hard, I guess we’ll give him credit for that.”
“If he’s able to beat Tyron, I will probably feel much better about what happened to me, because I’ll think damn, Tyron’s really good. I think that’s probably unlikely, but in that case, that’s probably what I’d think.”
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The Showtime Boxing PPV Will Air 5 Boxing Matches, Includes Tyson Fury’s Younger Brother
Paul vs. Woodley will be the main event of the Showtime Boxing PPV. All in all, there are five scheduled matches on the card, which will include the likes of unified featherweight world champion Amanda Serrano and heavyweight champion Tyson Fury’s younger brother Tommy Fury. The five fights are:
Jake Paul vs. Tyron Woodley
Amanda Serrano vs. Yamileth Mercado
Daniel Dubois vs. Joe Cusumano
Nan Baranchyk vs. Montana Love
Tommy Fury vs. Anthony Taylor
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