Former Bellator
MMA and ONE
Championship title holder Ben Askren
has been hospitalized with pneumonia.
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Askren’s wife, Amy, provided an update on the retired fighter’s
condition via social media on Saturday.
“You may have heard that my husband Ben is going through
something,” Amy Askren wrote. “He developed severe pneumonia which
come on very suddenly. He’s currently in the hospital and unable to
respond to anything at this time. We welcome all prayers for
healing and for peace. We are trying to keep life as normal as
possible for our children currently and doing our best to support
them thoughtfully, so please refrain from discussing it with them
for now.”
Update on Ben Askren
pic.twitter.com/74uk2xeDW4— Mark Bader (@MarkSBader)
June 8, 2025
A two-time NCAA national champion wrestler at the University of
Missouri and a 2008 Olympian, Askren put his mat skills to good use
in the mixed martial arts realm. He made his professional debut in
2009 and went unbeaten in his first 20 fights, capturing titles in
Bellator and ONE along the way.
Askren was later part of a historic trade between ONE and the
UFC, where the Las Vegas-based promotion dealt former flyweight
king Demetrious
Johnson to obtain the man known as “Funky.” While Askren
submitted Robbie
Lawler in his first UFC outing, he wouldn’t fight in MMA again
after being finished by Jorge
Masvidal and Demian Maia
in back-to-back Octagon appearances in 2019.
Askren
retired from MMA in November 2019, when he revealed that he
would need to undergo hip replacement surgery. More recently,
Askren tried his hand at boxing, falling to Jake Paul via
first-round knockout in their April 2021 bout.