#242 – Ben Askren: Wrestling and MMA

Lex Fridman Podcast

Ben Askren is a wrestler and MMA fighter, former Bellator and ONE Championship welterweight champion, a two-time NCAA wrestling champion and four-time finalist. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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EPISODE LINKS:
Ben’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/Benaskren
Ben’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/benaskren/
Ben’s Website: https://www.benaskren.com/
Ben’s Wrestling Academy: https://awawisconsin.com/

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OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(06:59) – Woodley vs Jake Paul boxing match
(10:48) – Askren vs Jake Paul boxing match
(13:23) – Jordan Burroughs and Kyle Dake
(24:37) – Askren vs Burroughs charity match
(29:21) – Champion mentality and handling losses
(43:40) – Future interest in competition
(53:09) – Askren’s early career
(1:03:58) – Robots wrestling
(1:18:39) – Olympics
(1:24:46) – Dagestan wrestling
(1:30:51) – Askren Wrestling Academy
(1:46:32) – Khabib Nurmagomedov
(1:53:08) – 2020 Olympics
(1:54:49) – Wrestling dominance in MMA