Daniel Cormier is a patient man but he didn’t have any time for Ben ‘Funky’ Askren’s take on modern MMA fighters being “soft”. The debate sparked during a discussion where Askren criticized the frequency of MMA fight pullouts due to what he deemed minor injuries, comparing fighters unfavorably to football players.
Askren, known for his blunt takes, argued that football players—whom he previously viewed as relatively fragile—seemed tougher than today’s MMA athletes. During his weekly appearance on Cormier’s YouTube channel, ‘Funky’ said,
“Are fighters getting soft? These dudes gotta show up 20 weeks a year (football players). These fighters gotta show up three times.”
Cormier, however, wasn’t having it and quickly pointed out the unfairness of comparing two vastly different sports and defending fighters’ decisions to prioritize their health and safety.
“But Ben, that is not fair. Fighters don’t show up three times. Think about this, if you do three fights, three fights only, you train for 36 weeks a year to prepare. That is more than half the year. They’re doing 20 weeks (football players). 24-25 weeks total. I can’t believe you.”
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He also added that if football players face a loss, they have another game next week to try and turn it around. However, for MMA fighters, a loss means waiting 2-3 months before you can get back into the octagon and get in the win column again, which is why Cormier feels the comparison is utterly inappropriate.
DC is right. Combat sports are vastly different from any sport on the planet and involve a direct risk to the safety of the fighters. So it is a little bizarre that Askren, despite having been a fighter himself would hold on to antiquated opinions.
However, his opinion on a major change in this newer generation of fighters is spot on.
Askren points out UFC’s McGregor problem
Askren believes McGregor’s groundbreaking success as a two-division champion shifted fighters’ priorities, with more champions now chasing belts across weight classes instead of solidifying their reign in one division.
Back in his hay day, McGregor made history by first defeating Jose Aldo and then following it up with a win over Eddie Alvarez. The two wins made him UFC’s first simultaneous two-division champion. But as the featherweight and lightweight champion of the world, McGregor didn’t do his job.
As a matter of fact, in chasing the Floyd Mayweather money fight, McGregor vacated both titles and never actually defended them like his predecessors had. Of course, personally, for him, it paid off. He made millions from boxing match, and went on to establish a business empire, making himself the most sought-after name in mixed martial arts.
However, this came at a cost. Askren reminisced about the days when defending a title multiple times was the gold standard for greatness.
“You think of the all-time greats—Anderson Silva, Georges St-Pierre—they defended their belts for a very long reign.”
It’s true. Amanda Nunes, Alex Pereira, and Daniel Cormier followed in McGregor’s footsteps. Even bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley had wanted to make the jump but would have, had he not been stopped by Merab Dvalishvili first.
And now, featherweight champion Ilia Topuria has announced that he was done with the division and would like to move to lightweight, which would allow him to face bigger and much more famous opponents.
