Ben Askren Predicts He'll Beat Jake Paul by TKO in 7th Round of Boxing Match
Ben Askren predicted on Ariel Helwani's MMA Show that he would defeat Jake Paul by a TKO in the seventh round when the two men face off in a boxing match April 17.
"Because I don't have a huge amount of power," Askren said (27:20 mark). "It'll take me some time to wear him down and make him hate his life. And then eventually he's gonna say, 'Hey look, I'm a rich celebrity. I don't need to get f--king punched anymore. I'm just gonna roll over.'"
Askren, 36, is a retired MMA fighter who went 19-2-1 across multiple promotions, including Bellator and UFC. His last MMA fight came in Oct. 2019, a loss to Demian Maia at a UFC Fight Night event. He also beat Robbie Lawler and lost to Jorge Masvidal in his short UFC career.
Paul, 24, has gone from being an Internet celebrity to a professional boxer, defeating YouTuber AnEsonGib (Ali Loui Al-Fakhri) and former NBA player Nate Robinson.
"Ben Askren is a two-time NCAA champion, a world champion in two different global mixed martial arts organizations and has less losses on his record than Conor McGregor," Paul told reporters after the fight was announced. "Me, on the other hand, I started boxing two years ago and I'm still going to knock his ass out faster than [Jorge] Masvidal. These MMA guys think because they throw punches they know how to box."
