Well I have been in Arizona for one week now, I am sitting in the wrestling room watching Aaron Simpson prepare for his fight at UFC on August 29, I am up here because I do not have internet at my apartment yet, nor do I have cable so it is a pretty boring time.  The coaching staff has gelled really well so far, both brians (stith and snyder) are awesome so I am really excited to get this team headed in the right direction.  i have also found some gyms to workout at.  Lions Den and Arizona Combat Sports are both within a mile of where I live, and both have really good coaches and good class schedules so it will be a good setup for me.  I head back to STL wednesday to go to my fight on Friday which is in the Maxfights promotion.  The fight will be covered on purefight.org, I hope you check it out. 

I want to say thanks to my buddies at purefight.com and flowrestling.org for making me this sweet new website.  They do the best work around and who doesnt love all of their videos.  I just moved to Arizona to join the Sun Devil wrestling staff with Shawn Charles, it is awesome down here and our staff is great, I cant wait to start working with the kids to make the team better.  I have another fight coming up on Aug 28 in Des Moines with MaxFightsDM.  I am supposed to have a better opponent this time, I hear he is 13-6 so it should be more of a challenge and I look forward to it.  Also move into my new place today, hopefully it is nice, because I have not seen the inside yet.  Check out my next fight on purefight.org

I just realized it had been two months since I wrote anything. I got big news this mornign that I got invited to the Abu Dhabi Combat Championships, which is the biggest grappling tourney in the world. I am pumped, but I gotta get real good real fast or I wll get my ankle torn off. It will be in Barcelona on Spet 26. Amateur world disc championships are less than a month away in Kansas City so I am getting excited for that too. Right now I am in Jersey and PA teaching some wrestling. The level of talent out here is jsut amazing, so many good hs wrestlers. I am going to the lake for the fourth and then onthe shawn charles cruise camp. Catch up with you guys soon
Ben 

Well I have found my way to the small port community of Halifax, Nova Scotia. I am here with Mike Chandler helping TJ Grant prepare for his UFC debut. Tj is 13-2 and will make his debut on April 18 against Ryo Chonan, he is a very well rounded mixed martial artist. TJ and his Coach Scott have also been helping me a lot with my Muay Thai, which is one of their sprecialties. I will leave on Wednesday to go back to Columbia and prepare for my next fight which takes place on April 25 at the Patriot Act 2 in Columbia, MO. You can find out more info about that at headhunterevents.com or watch it at purefight.org. The week previous to this I was training in Biloxi, MS with Alan Belcher who is a 7 time UFC veteran and a great guy to boot. He taught me stand up and I taught him some wrestling. Alan is very open minded and he is only 24 I think he has a very strong future in the sport and will be contending for the title in no time. Before I run to get some Ice Cream with Michael I have to give a shout out to the five tiger all-americans for making me proud, congrats guys you deserved it.  

So just to update everyone, my next fight will be on April 25, I dont have an opponent yet, but the show will be Patriot Act 2. I had a lot of fun promoting the first show with my partners so I am excited to do another one bigger and better. Training is going well, I have started working on my stand up now that I have a Muay Thai coach. NCAA’s are coming up in a week, I am excited to see if the tigers can finally make a big jump. We had a pretty dissapointing Big 12 only winning two titles. Marcus Hoehn was the highlight of my day winning the 141lb weight class after going 0-7 in the big 12 last year. But on the more immediate future for me, I am taking of today to go play in the amateur doubles disc golf world championships. It is taking place in Wimberly, TX on Saturday and Sunday. If my partner James Hefner wouldn’t have sprained his ankle playing basketball two weeks ago I would really like our chances. Now that the weather is getting nice don’t miss your chance to go out and chuck a disc. 

Just heard this from my friends at purefight.

Purefight.org is proud to announce that they will be bringing you live streaming coverage of The Patriot Act
this Saturday February 7th beginning at 8pm. This should be an exciting card with Ben Askren making his mma debut and Din Thomas making his debut at 145. Din is a 10x UFC veteran who should make some noise at 145, also fighitng on the card will be 2x NCAA wrestling all-american Tyron Woodley as well as Kiko France.

Two-time NCAA champion, Hodge trophy winner and 2008 Olympian Ben Askren has begun his transition from wrestling into the mma world. This Saturday, February 7th Ben will be making his professional mixed martial arts debut when he takes on Tom Aaron in Columbia, MO on “The Patriot Act” fight card being put on by Head Hunter Productions. Askren became well known in the wrestling community for his unorthodox “funky” style of wrestling in which he took a many calculated risks which made his style of wresting fun and entertaining to watch. During his successful collegiate career Askren lost to just 2 opponents in 4 years and racked up 91 victories by way of pin, putting him 3rd on the all-time NCAA career pins list. Shortly after wrestling in the Olympics Ben announced that he would be stepping off the wrestling mat and into the cage and now his highly anticipated debut is just days away.

Ben currently lives in Columbia, MO where he is a volunteer coach on the University of Missouri wrestling staff. He has been doing his mma training at American Top Team in Columiba and doing a lot of jiu jitsu training with brazilian jiu jitsu black belt Kiko France. In December of 2008 Ben spent 2 weeks in southern Florida training at the American Top Team home base in Coconut Creek, FL training with some of the best fighters and trainers in the country. He competed in college at 174, the Olympics at 163 and will be fighting at 170 lbs on Saturday night.
Keep up to date with prefight coverage, interviews and weigh-ins on Purefight. 

So if you haven’t heard by now and you likely have I am debuting in the cage on February 7. I don’t know who my opponent is yet, I just had one back out. I think we have another one locked in but nothing is for sure yet. The fights are on Feb 7 at the Holiday Inn Expo center in Columbia, MO. I have been training very hard for my debut, y jiu jitsu is going to new levels and I keep getting better everyday. Great news is we now have a striking coach at ATTMO his name is Lucas Lopes and he is great so far. His english isn’t the best but I am learning some portugese and we communicate what we need too, plus Kiko helps with the language barrier. Also fighting on the card are my BJJ coach Kiko France, Training Partner Zach Lenon, Former teammate at Mizzou Tyron Woodley and UFC Vet Din Thomas. If you want more info about that you can check www.headhunterevents.com. Also how bout those tigers, taking out #2 ranked Cornell last week, the team wrestled really well and although I became ill and couldn’t go I got to watch on TV and I got pumped. We take on #3 Nebraska tomorrow, hopefully we can put it on them and keep climbing the charts. Hope to see everyone at the fights next weekend. 

Big news everyone I just found out when my first fights will be. I have one planned for Columbia, MO on Feb. 7 in the Headhunters Fight League and my second will be in Miami on Feb 26. I will be fighting 170 in both shows. I don’t have a 100% for sure opponent for either show yet, but I will let you know as soon as possible. Training has been going really well, I head down to coconut creek next week to train at the main ATT facility, I am very excited. Check back soon for details, thanks for the support. 

 Well I figured I would wrap up the whole experience, even though I havent wanted to think about it much lately. Then tell you where the future is going to take me. So I lost, I didnt live up to the guarentees I put forth. I have to keep being reminded that making the Olympics in the first place is a great accomplishment. It isn’t the first time I haven’t lived up to a guarantee I put out and it probably wont be the last. When asked a question I will tell you exactly what I think without pulling any punches and I hope you can appreciate that. I always saw the pressure Cael was under and imagined what it would be like, I have no idea of knowing what 159-0 pressure is, but I have gotten to the point in the sport where I have to win everything all the time. This pressure is inflicted by myself, but it can really wear me out, I can understand why Cael wanted to be done.

As far as my future goes I am not sure about it yet, I know two things for sure. I will be going on two vacations in September, they are well needed and deserved. Secondly I will be at the University of Missouri until Max graduates. It is a promise I made him when he came to Mizzou is that I would be there as long as he would. I knew I needed him to reach my pinnacle and I want to do the same for him. He has been a big part of any title run I have made in my life. A lot of people insist I should go elsewhere to train, but I gave him my word and keeping my word is more important than anything tangible could be.

I might fight, I might wrestle, I am not really sure right now. Lets get one thing straight though, MY decision isn’t based on monetary gain, I am doing pretty well for myself wrestling. Sure I am not getting rich, but who does wrestling to get rich? Would my life be easier if I got more than a measley $7,500 stipend from USA wrestling for the whole year for being the #1 guy? Of course it would, but I really dont know if that would translate into me being a better wrestler. I have wanted to fight for a long time and it isn’t because of the money, it is because I think it would be fun and it would be a great challenge. Am I upset because there is a chance I will have a large monetary gain from it? You must be crazy.

So I will drive home to Columbia today, I am so excited to be back, China just wasn’t for me. I hope you appreciate that fact that I share my innermost thoughts with you and you can refrain yourself from childishly deriding what I think. Have a great day, I will.

Ben