Ben Askren knows he doesn’t have to be an elite boxer to beat Jake Paul.
On April 17, Paul and Askren are set for a highly-anticipated boxing fight. Although Askren is far from a striker, he knows he is an elite-level athlete and to beat up Paul, he doesn’t have to become an elite boxer.
“Boxing, obviously it’s different, but I told someone the other day that I’m really good at athletics,” Askren said to MMAFighting. “I wanted to be a really great wrestler. I won NCAA titles and made the Olympics. I wanted to be a good mixed martial artist. I won multiple belts in multiple organizations. If I want to beat up an amateur boxer, it ain’t gonna take me more than three months of training to do so.”
Instead, Ben Askren is relying on his experience in MMA and changing some the way he throws and moves. He also knows that over 12 weeks of boxing, he has gotten leaps and bounds better as all he is worrying about is punching, instead of training all aspects of MMA.
“I love the aspect like training to try and be good at something,” Askren said. “When you think about it, boxing is so much easier than mixed martial arts. You just have to take your two hands and punch somebody in the face.
“Whereas in mixed martial arts you have to worry about the takedown, you can get takedowns, you can stuff the takedowns, you can clinch them, you can knee them, you can kick them, you can punch them, you can elbow them,” Askren continued. “Once you’re on the ground, then there’s a whole other boatload of stuff. MMA is almost an information overload. This one is just drilling repetitions, getting in shape, feeling time and distances, that type of stuff.”
Do you think Ben Askren will beat Jake Paul?
