USA Wrestling Olympian and Former UFC welterweight/former One FC champion Ben Askren commented on the football/soccer World Cup and he was not impressed by the attitude of some soccer players:
“It was really the first time I watched soccer all year. I was really appalled when I am seeing all these guys falling on the ground, rolling around, crying. And then you know the worst part about it is, they show the instant replay and you can tell – most of these guys, they don’t even get hit, they’re faking it.”
“When I’m thinking of sports, when I’m thinking of a boy growing up and being a man, I’m thinking of three things – honor, integrity, and toughness. And a grown man, faking an injury, rolling around on the field fails all three of those tests.
“There’s no honor in faking an injury. There is no integrity because you are lying about it. And there’s no toughness because you are in front of millions of people, and you’re rolling around on the field, crying – CRYING – about a fake injury that never happened.”
“Listen folks, if you want your son to grow up to be a man, don’t have him run around on a field kicking a ball, get him wrestling.”
Ben Askren is an American former amateur wrestler for the University of Missouri and U.S. Olympic team. He is now a grappler, mixed martial artist and the former Bellator Welterweight Champion and the current ONE Welterweight Champion known for his effective wrestling . He is currently ranked as the #5 welterweight in the world by Fight!Magazine and as the #8 welterweight by Sherdog.
Askren finished his collegiate wrestling career with a record of 153–8, with 91 of those victories coming by way of fall. Those 91 pins put him at third on the all-time NCAA Division I pins list. In his four-year career at Missouri, Askren only lost to two opponents, Chris Pendleton of Oklahoma St. and Ryan Lange of Purdue. He was also a four-time All-American, including being only the twelfth Division I wrestler ever to be a four-time finalist. Askren was also nominated for an ESPY in 2007 in the category Best Male College Athlete. On January 9, 2012 it was announced that Askren would be one of six new inductees to the University of Missouri Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame.
Askren is a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. In December 2008, he went to Coconut Creek, FL to train at American Top Team main school where many top fighters train. He currently trains at Roufusport in Milwaukee, where he is the wrestling coach.
Asken competed at the 2009 ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship from September 26—27, in Barcelona, Spain. He won his first match against Toni Linden by arm triangle choke. He lost his second match to Pablo Popovitch, a veteran grappler he had trained with the previous summer, by figure four footlock early in the match. Popovitch went on to win the championship in the under 77 kg (169 lb) division.
Askren also competed at the 2009 FILA World Grappling Championship. Askren faced the 2008 World Champion, Jacob Volkmann, in the 84 kg no-gi division. Askren out-wrestled Volkmann and won gold in the category.
Check out Ben Askren’s instructional series “Ultimate Askren.“. Ben Askren was an NCAA D-1 Wrestler and is notorious for being one of the greatest and most technical wrestlers on the planet
Ben is a well seasoned combat veteran with an excellent system for bringing someone down to the ground.
Ben makes it easy to implement wrestling on anybody, no matter their size, skill, or athletic level.
The post Ben Askren: ‘For Your Son To Be a Man, No To Soccer, Yes To Wrestling’ appeared first on Bjj Eastern Europe.