Ben Askren is walking away from mixed martial arts competition sooner than most expected.
On Nov. 24, Askren will step inside the cage for the final time. He’ll defend his ONE Championship welterweight title against Shinya Aoki. “Funky” will take an executive role at ONE Championship.
During a recent appearance on MMAFighting.com‘s “The MMA Hour,” Askren said he didn’t want to keep fighting until he was past his prime:
“So we’re in a combat sport, it’s dangerous, and I am definitely not physically at the peak I was, say, four to five years ago. And you know, it’s a slippery slope, because can I still compete with the best in the world? Yeah, of course I can. But you start getting a little worse and a little worse, a little worse. When is that cutoff?”
He then talked about missing out on some things that he’d be able to have if he stopped fighting.
“Then the No. 2 reason will be, if you’re competing right, if you’re doing it right, competition should be a very selfish pursuit. When I was younger, [I would read] athletes’ biographies, I always said I would be done by the time I was 30, because I wanted to be able to give back. I thought I would be coaching, and I am, and I thought I would be a parent, and I am. And there’s a lot of things that I have to do. For example, I didn’t coach anyone for about the last six weeks before my fight at AWA, because this is my time, I need to get ready. And there’s things I miss out in my kids’ life, because this is my time, I have to get ready. So, I guess those are the two main reasons that I kind of set an expiration date for myself.”
