Tyron Woodley believes Ben Askren’s confidence in escaping bad situations cost him against Demian Maia

Former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley has shared his thoughts on Ben Askren’s submission loss to Demian Maia at UFC Singapore.

Woodley and Askren are longtime friends and training partners, so ‘The Chosen One’ was obviously disappointed to witness ‘Funky’ suffer his second career defeat.

Askren was submitted by Maia in the third round of today’s UFC Singapore event headliner (see that here).

After entering the UFC with a perfect record of 18-0, Ben Askren has since gone 1-2 with the promotion. ‘Funky’ scored a controversial submission victory over Robbie Lawler in his Octagon debut, and then was knocked out in just 5-seconds by Jorge Masvidal at UFC 239.

Image Credit: Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Tyron Woodley explained what went wrong for Askren against Maia during the UFC Singapore post-fight show (via MMANews.com):

“The thing about Ben, when I was looking down there yelling and screaming, if he would’ve thrown overhand rights and got his head off-line he would’ve been able to access the right leg of Demian Maia,” Tyron Woodley said. “If he would’ve thrown that shovel uppercut and got his head off-line, he would’ve avoided those punches, he would’ve got close to the front leg which from a southpaw is gonna be his right leg. Getting to the back leg of Demian Maia is very difficult and when you go back there it’s a huge risk that you have to take, and I think that when you go for it with your head down and you’re trying to go for those strikes you put yourself in jeopardy.”

Tyron Woodley continued where he suggested that Ben Askren’s confidence in escaping bad situations may have cost him against the submission ace, Maia.

“As I said before, Ben likes to put himself in harm’s way because he knows he’s confident in getting out of it,” Woodley continued. “This time he didn’t get out of it. I think he’ll go back home, I think he’ll look at the film and I think he can get back on the horse.”

What do you think should come next for former Bellator and ONE champion Ben Askren? Sound off in the comments section PENN Nation!

October 26, 2019