Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Ben Askren on fighting Jake Paul, Snoop Dogg betting $2 million against him, WWE wanting to sign him

Episode Date: March 22, 2021

Ben Askren is a retired UFC fighter, amateur wrestler, and podcaster. He joins Chris Van Vliet from his home in Hartland, Wisconsin before his boxing match with Jake Paul on April 17. He talks about why Jake chose him as his opponent, training with Freddie Roach, his retirement from UFC, Jake's comments about his wife, what he remembers from the fight with Jorge Masvidal, his passion for BitCoin, WWE's interest in him, and his trip to the Performance Center, Dana White's $1 million bet on this fight, Snoop Dogg wanting to make it a $2 million bet, wanting to fight Logan Paul if he wins this and much more! If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.  For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to https://chrisvanvliet.com  Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram:instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter:twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook:facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube:youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This podcast episode is brought to you by Coors Light. These days, everything is go, go, go. It's nonstop hustle all the time. Work, friends, family. Expect you to be on 24-7? Well, sometimes you just need to reach for a Coors Light because it's made to chill. Coors Light is cold-loggered, cold filtered, and cold packaged. It's as crisp and refreshing as the Colorado Rockies.

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So good to have you with us. What an interesting conversation with a super interesting guy. Pumped to have Ben Askren on the show today ahead of his big fight on April 17 against YouTuber, turned boxer. Jake Paul, who has been talking a lot of trash leading up to this. Although Ben says, you know what, I'm really not that impressed. I don't think Jake's trash talk is very good. Ben is, of course, a decorated wrestler, had an incredible MMA career in Bellator,

one championship, and UFC. He ended his career at 19 and 2, but this is his first ever boxing match. So it'll be very interesting to see how this all shakes out. and if you watch the Mike Tyson and Roy Jones fight, I mean, Triller knows how to put on his show. There's going to be a lot of pomp and circumstance around this. Snoop's going to be there.

Justin Bieber's going to be there. It's going to be good. Take a screenshot. Let us know that you're listening to this. Let us know that you're on this audio adventure. Tag me. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. Tag Ben.

He is at Ben Ascran. And if it's your first time here, make sure to hit subscribe so you don't miss out on any future episodes. And I appreciate you wherever you're listening, however you're listening, and if that happens to be Apple Podcasts, could I ask you to take a minute to leave a review? Tommy G. 1319 says, great to listen to while pooping. I love listening to CVV's podcast while I poop. Thanks for making poop enjoyable. Started listening on YouTube last year, moved over to Apple Podcast. and then went back and listened to every episode on the podcast and also on YouTube.

Keep it up. Well, that is quite the review, Tommy. Thank you, sir. I will... Poop. I'll keep reading one out on every single episode. Till we get to 2,000 reviews or my birthday, which is quickly coming, May 19th. So, 2,000 reviews or May 19th, whichever one comes first.

And, you know, I'll read... They'll kind of go to the top of the list. if you write a review about poop, maybe you can review your poop. Sure. I'll read that on the show. That'll definitely be something that will inspire me to want to read it on the show. Poop. It was a good one.

By the way, you can also head to chrisfanfleet.com for your chance to win a Kevin Owens Funko Pop, which is autographed by, yeah, you guessed it. Kevin Owens, Chrisfanfleet.com. Okay. All right. This is such a great conversation. Here we go. Please welcome.

Funky. Ben Ascran. Well, Ben, as we sit here right now, you are officially one month away from this fight. I mean, this feels like it's coming up pretty quickly. Yeah. You know what? I didn't realize that until you said that.

Yeah, one month is tremendous. It doesn't feel like it's been soon for me. It feels like I haven't trained for a while now. So it's good. I feel like I've been improving a lot in training. and I'm excited for it. When you agreed to this, did you realize how big of a deal

that this would end up becoming? Huh. I mean, the guy's got a huge social media following, right? So I realize that there was going to be quite a bit of attention on it. But now, you know, especially with the announcements today, it seems like it's going to be a really, really big thing because they got, you know, Bieber. It's obviously got a very large following.

Snoop Dog has a really large following. I mean, there's a lot of big names on this. thing. I mean, does this feel like the biggest fight you've ever had? Hmm. It really, I mean, so it doesn't, it doesn't to me, right? Because it's like, for me, I'm retired. This sounded like a fun thing. So I'm going to do it. I'm working hard. I'm trying to be a boxer. But, you know, for other things, I mean, those were my life, right? Wrestling, whether it was, you know, we're trying to win a first state title or trying to win a national title in college or the Olympics or the Olympic trials.

Those are huge things. Obviously, let's see, I've either fought for or defended a world title. And I think nine or 10, no, 10 of my 21 professional MMA fight. So it doesn't feel like that to me. But yes, I think there probably will be the more, most eyes on this more than anything I've done. Yeah, this will likely be the fight that's watched by the most people ever. weird, right? Well, I mean, you tell me, is that weird? It's really weird. And that's, uh, you know,

a lot of people have an issue with it. And I think it's one of those things where it's just like, hey, man, I know it's not ideal for a lot of people, but that's the way the world works. You know, of these people who have gigantic social media followings. Um, and maybe they're not nearly as good at boxing as, you know, even say a low level pro, but they're going to get 100x to the eyeballs of a low level pro. You know, a lot of people threw their hat in the ring. Of all the people that Jake Paul could have fought, why do you think? You know, he picked you. Well, I think there's a combination of,

I have a pretty good social media following. And then I think, obviously, he thinks I'm probably not that good at boxing. And those are probably the factors that went into it. Do you think that your boxing's improved a bunch since you started training for this? It has improved. But my whole contention, the whole thing that I said from the beginning is like, listen, if he's a really good boxer, he's, you know, I'm probably not going to do very well. And, you know, I was in there with Freddy's and this guy, Gabe Rosado is in there.

It's like, I want no part of him. Like that guy fought for world title. Like, I'm not, I'm not that level boxer, and I have no illusion that I am that level, right? But I don't think Jake Paul is that good. And while he may look good in some of these videos and stuff, there's a big difference between being in the training room, being in sparring, in practice, and then stepping out on a big stage and fighting someone who's going to be in your face and in front of you and hit back. There's big differences. I think the other difference is you've been in the big fights before. Yeah, absolutely.

And I know how to deal with that type of thing. And I don't think that he does. And so I'm going to try to expose him for what he is. Well, you mentioned Freddie. You were here in L.A. recently training with Freddie Roach. How much has he helped you improve your game? Oh, he was awesome. It was great getting to spend a week out there and just kind of watch the way he works

and watch other boxers and his gym work. Yeah, he was great. I picked up quite a few things for him. I've had the luxury of being able to work with quite a few good people, but he would be at the top of the list. All right. So how different is training camp for this fight versus all of your other fights you've had? Well, boxing is so much different than MMA because it's such a specified skill set, right?

You're doing only a really small amount of things, right? There's no punching, there's no kicking, there's no elbowing, there's no takedowns, there's no grappling, no nothing, right? So it's like focus on this really small skill set. And so yeah, I've definitely gotten better at it because of folks got on one really small thing. And then the other thing is like I, you know, I did some stand up in the MAMA, but most of my stand-up was like, how do I get close enough to you to take you down? And, you know, if I hit you, great, but I'm not really all that worried about hitting you because once I get you in the ground, then I'm going to hit you a whole bunch. And so like, especially the first couple weeks, it was like, okay, you know, why am I doing this?

when I try to hit you and then I put this hand, oh, it's because I want to take you down. I want to grab your head or I want to clinch you. And then also learning just the differences in the clinch in boxing and, you know, feeling good boxers. It's interesting the way they clinch just and it's more or less to keep their hands free so they can throw their hands.

Whereas in MMA, right, we're trying to get a hold of someone, we're trying to control someone, take them down. Or obviously in MMA we can also, you know, use the clinch to pull them into a punch or pull them in to an elbow. Yeah. And, uh, that's borderline illegal in boxing. borderline. You go over the few of them.

Do you think that any again? Do you think maybe your instincts will kick in here and maybe you'll revert back to some of that wrestling stuff by accident? No, I don't think so. I think I'm smart enough at this point in time to, you know, I've been trained, well, by the time I've done, I'll train 12 weeks for boxing. I think I will be in a boxing mindset.

I'm not doing a lot of anything else at all at this time period, so I think it'll be good. Have you watched Jake's other two fights? And if so, would you think? That's not very good, right? I mean, whether you like him or not, that Nate Robinson knockout, it's a highlight real knockout. Yeah, so I mean, I always say it's so hard to judge someone's skill level when this discrepancy is so vast. So Nate Robinson looked like he's literally never been punched before.

I mean, I think it was obviously he'd never been in a fight. And, you know, so it's like, well, how can I judge someone against that? Because that was so bad, almost everything's going to look good. And then the other kid that he fought was even worse than that. I mean, that kid was really, really bad. I don't know his name. So I actually don't think there's a lot to take away from those fights besides that, you know, Nate Robinson got scared and he was able to land.

I think it was a big right hand. I think it was one body shot, right? That Nate Robinson landed on Jake and that was it. Yeah. But Jake, I don't know, Jake looks, he looks pretty fast. Yeah, fair enough. Is there anything about his game that you respect? We'll find out.

I mean, maybe we'll see. I mean, he talks a lot of trash. Again, it's so hard to judge when you're telling judge this guy based on a fight with Nate Robinson, judge this guy based on a fight with some other jabroney. It's so hard, right? Anyone who looks good against those guys. Do you appreciate his trash talking? I actually don't think it's that good.

I don't think it's that funny. Hmm. Yeah. And I appreciate a good trash talker of which I don't believe he really is. What did you think when he started following your wife on social media? I thought that was like a teenager move. You know what I'm saying? Like that's something like teenagers would get mad at and, you know, me and my wife laughed at it.

And what did she think of being called Thick with two Cs? Yeah, we didn't. She didn't really know what that meant. But yeah, I told her. So we're all good. I call her sick Amy all the time. She's used to it then. I don't think he's following her anymore, though.

No, because it didn't work because we're not teenagers. Yeah. By the way, I need to point out this shirt. This shirt is so good. This is a Rudish shirt, Drago. He's got the, oh, yeah. Oh, this is fantastic. Yes.

Yeah. If this fight does go well, for you. What do you think that you can gain from this? Because obviously, Jake gains a lot. Jake, you know, beats, don't you think? I mean, I think at some, whether it's this fight or the next one or one after that, I don't know, I don't know when it's going to be. At some point, Jay's going to say there's a lot better ways to make a living. I'm, I think he's moderately wealthy and he's famous. And there's a lot of ways he can make money besides getting a cage and, well, getting a ring in this case and fighting

somebody. So I think that realization, whether it comes this fight, or the next one of the watch that. So if, but if you win, like, what's in it for you? You put a stop to Jake Paul's boxing career? That's it. You know, maybe I beat up Logan. Oh. You know, and then I go back to my real life.

It's fun. You know, I did this for fun. I thought it was going to be a great time. I'm enjoying it. I'm having fun training, getting back in shape. And then, you know, I'll probably go back to my regular life. What was the most intriguing thing for you about this fight? Was it that you were going to be paid a bunch?

I mean, that's obviously a positive. Sure. No, it was more like, hey, I wonder if I can beat this guy up. You know, it's like, and that was kind of it. I've always loved challenging myself, and it was kind of like, he called me out. And I was like, okay, it sounds fun. Let's go. Yeah.

Are you being paid more in this fight than you ever got paid and you have seen? I know. That's good. Yeah, I mean, that is kind of crazy when you think about it. Yeah. it's stupid. That means that if or when you win this fight, that means you make even more on the next fight.

If I decide to do another one. Okay. Yeah, you know what? I mean, this is dumb, but it's like I had retired obviously. I've been retired for a year or so. Yeah. And like I got excited about training and I'm very disciplined. So I do my training every single day.

But it's like kind of nice like when I didn't have to wake up and train every single day when I could just, hey, I don't. feel like working out today. Well, I'm retired. I don't have to work out today. This is outstanding. You know, like, so like when I was retired, I might have been working out like three or four times a week and like, you know, when I felt like, could I get a workout in? And like this whole like, hey, I'm training. I need to wake up and train today or I need to train twice today. It's like, damn it. I got trained twice today. So I don't know. We'd have to think about it. It would have to be lucrative for me to want to do it again. And the other thing is, it is, I don't want to

distracting is the right word, but right, I'm running a business. My brother, I have five wrestling academies and I run one of them. Um, and, you know, being away from it. Like, I don't like being away from it, right? I've taken some time off to prepare myself for this, but I don't necessarily like that. Like, I enjoy what I do. And, um, yeah, so if I, if I did it again, it would have to be lucrative. You know, they talk about freedom 55. You were retired. You were freedom 35. What's that? What's free? Yeah, where you're retired at 35. Got it. Yeah. I mean, I, I, I, I, so I'm not, you know, I still work hard, but I love everything I do. And I have the ability to, if I don't want to do that today,

I don't have to do that today, you know? And, yeah, living the good life. Did you go into that Damien Maya fight thinking, I might retire after this thing? I had a pretty good idea. I mean, even if you won? Well, so my idea was, yeah, okay. So if I won, I probably would not have,

it was going to come quickly, right? So my idea was if I retired, I was going to try to get, I figured I was if at that point, after L.S. Mazel, I was two fights away from entire. battle fight because popularity goes a long way in the UFC. Sure. So if I was able to beat Maya, I was going to try to turn around, do one quick.

And they get, my hip was getting so bad at that point. Like, there was just so many things I couldn't do. And I knew like, dude, my time is at this point, like the clock is ticking. So had I beat Maya, it was like, I was going to try to turn around. I remember there was actually, um, not, don't quote me on the date, but I'll be close. I think there was like a December 7th card in, it was. in Washington, D.C. So that would have like five or six weeks after my fight that didn't have really big names

on it. So I was going to push to get on that card against someone else. And then, right, I would have hopefully propelled me to a title shot because then Colby and Marty were fighting December 14th. And then I could have pushed for that right after. I think that's how the timeline went, I believe. Yeah, I just, I knew how to be fast, right? Because my hip was getting to the point where I just didn't have a many miles left.

How is your hip feeling now? It's awesome. So good. Like 10 and a 10? Yeah. If I would have known the results of the surgery, like if I could have seen that, I would have done it years ago. I just like, I knew a bunch of the things were from my hip,

but like there was a bunch more things that were happening because of my hip that I didn't know what happening because of my hip. And so had I been able to predict or had I been able to know what the surgery, the outcome of the surgery would have been, I would have absolutely, at the very least, I would have for sure done it right when I retired from one championship, which was November of 2017. I would have done it right then and there, for sure. If we take it to the fight before that, there's a lot of comments online going, oh, man, he doesn't stand a chance against Jake Paul. I saw how the Mosphidal fight went.

Yeah, that's hilarious. It just doesn't seem fair, though, to judge this fight based on one knockout. I mean, if you're under the illusion that social media is fair and people on this, there are smart, you're going to be really disappointed. Really, really disappointed. So I would take everything that you read on Instagram comments or Twitter comments with a grain of salt. Listen, I hit with a good shot.

It was the only time in 21 professional fights that I was stunned or knocked down. And, man, it happened sometimes. Happened at a really bad time for me. What do you remember from that fight? Nothing. No. do you remember anything like do you remember the fight starting i remember um the like the staring at him uh in the pre-fight thing that's it and then what's the first thing you remember after that

uh i was in the hospital with my wife no way yeah and that was your wife telling you about all the things like obviously you were conscious she didn't tell me i was just like i kind of like i remember i mean the first thing i remember is that i was like like i'm in the hospital it's probably didn't go so well huh and then i was just like i'm sorry i'm sorry i didn't go so well huh And then I remember thinking, like, I didn't feel like super sweaty or sore. So I'm like, shit. It must have been fast, huh? And she's like, yep.

And I'm like, uh, F, you know. And then, uh, now, then that was it. I went to the after party. Did you, do you, do you went to the after party? Yeah. My friends were there. I would. Yeah.

Did you have any point where like, you know, you hear sometimes when guys wake up from a knockout where, you know, they can't figure out what day it is or what city they're no, not at all. Once it was there. So, actually the first memory was I remember Luke Rockhole was right in front of me

and I thought when that was the first thing I was like in the hospital Luke Rockhold's right there and then Amy was right there I'm like Amy I'm in the hospital huh and she's like yeah

I'm like uh damn it yeah how did you envision obviously that's not how you envision you know that fight ending what was the game plan for that fight uh take it on and beat him up he doesn't he doesn't wrestle all that well

as evidence between you know And that's why I said the Marty fight the second time is kind of dumb because Ouzman won five rounds to zero. You know, it wasn't, it wasn't people are claiming it's competitive, but I think that's like because they want to remember it that way because they like George a lot more than they like Ousman.

Ousman's very unlikable. So they want to remember it as being relatively competitive when it really wasn't. And then, you know, if you look at other fights, Damien Meyer wrestled them. Like there's a whole bunch of people who've taken George down a whole bunch. And that was the game plan. That's something I've done better than almost anyone, you know, right?

I mean, really could be Medami and Maya. And there's very few people who have been as effective with their takedowns as I have. So that was the plan. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Is there something interfering with your happiness or is preventing you from achieving your goals? BetterHelp will assess your needs and match you with your own licensed professional therapist. You can start communicating in under 48 hours. Now, this isn't a crisis line.

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I think there's going to be a lot of people who are just finding out about Ben Ascran for the first time because of this, you know, big fight. So if they go back through all your pro fights, which one should they watch to get a real good feeling for who you are and what you do? Well, the ones I would say was where I kind of had my pinnacle would be, I don't know about my pinnacle. Because I would say I stayed at a high level for a while. but like when I kind of like hit the curve and was really performing at a really high level would be Douglas Lima would be the first one. Okay. And so I was so if we kind of go back a little further, I would say, you know, I started fighting and I won the Bell to our Bell 18 months into my fighting career. So even when I won the Bell to Bell, I was like, I was still figuring it out.

I didn't really know what I was doing, but I was like I was getting there. Yeah. And so it took me even a few fights after that. And I think Douglas Lima was, I want to say my third title. defense. So that fight, the Amasu fight, and then the Kreschkoff fight with three fights in row where I was just uber dominant. I didn't, none of the rounds were competitive. I won every single round very easily. I finally, so Lima was a decision, but then after that, that broke, I had a whole bunch of decisions in a row. And then after Lima, Kreshkoff and Amasur finishes,

then I had a whole bunch of finishes in a row. And so it was like, I, you know, I really started figuring MMA out. So that would kind of be like the stretch. And then, you know, I was very dominant in one championship, all the way to my retirement. I mean, and you're 19 and no when you, before you lost your first match, do you ever think like, I'm going to go undefeated my whole career? Well, I was. I retired undefeated. I mean, right? I was 18 and 0. I retired. And the circumstances to which unretired were totally unpredictable. I mean, I said I will retire if I get to fight the best guys in the world.

How that's going to happen, I don't know. And a trade was never in the cards. I never thought, oh, I'm going to get traded. Like, that never happened before then.

It has not happened since then. I actually think they should do it more often. I think it was a pretty cool thing. And people really, really liked it. And so, yeah, I mean,

like, I was retired undefeated. I was done. And I was off for what I, So I fought November of 2017 and I retired. That was my retirement fight. And then I didn't fight again until March of 2019. So, you know, a 16-month gap or so.

Yeah. I mean, and then obviously my plan when I came to the UFC was to really, my deal was to win three fights, get the belt, and retire. I also feel like your plan coming to UFC was to just like pester Dana White as much as you possibly could. I do, of course. You were very successful in doing that. Yeah, yeah. He seemed to, I think, both enjoy that and also hate that.

Yeah, I mean, I think he enjoyed it because, you know, I was able to bring up a whole bunch of pay-per-view buys, which, you know, that always gets you on Dan's good side. Well, I mean, he's put a million dollars on you for this fight. I know, awesome, right? You believe that? Listen, Dana loves to gamble and he knows fighting. And so, yeah, seems reasonable for him. But Snoop Dog has bet two million against you. Snoop Dog knows nothing about fighting.

And I guess he likes to waste money. So that's also reasonable. Have you met Snoop Dog? I have not met Snoop Dog. I'm guessing that I will or maybe I won't because I already talked shit to him with a bit on Twitter. So who knows? Well,

you're going to meet everybody that night, I feel like. So who knows? Maybe they'll have me in a dressing room and I won't be able to. Maybe I will. I guess we will just wait and see until April 7th. You're going to get a knock on the door and it's going to be Justin Bieber.

That would be funny, wouldn't it? That's exactly what's going to happen. That would be cool, I guess. I mean, someone, one of these damn musicians has got to be on my side. They can't all love Jake Paul. Someone's got to think he's an idiot. That's right. We need to find a musician that is going to ban him Ben Ascran.

We do. Who could have been? I would like, well, let's see. My favorite guy right now is Post Malone. There we go. And, right, I also love Notre Dame's BIG. and Tupac, but they are passed away. And then I really love the red hot chili peppers.

They are one of the greatest bands of all time. And you know what? Actually, they're UFC fans, so maybe they can bet on me. Maybe someone from Red Hot Chili Peppers could put a million on you. There we go. The fact that we're talking about people betting a million plus dollars on this fight is, that's a lot. It's awesome, right?

I mean, it's pretty crazy. I don't know. We're still another month to go. There's still going to be some time for all this to sink in and realize how bizarre all this is. Well, yeah, I mean, we had the press conference next week in Vegas, so that's probably going to be pretty wild. Yeah, that's going to be really wild. Really wild.

You know, when you look back at your career and all the accolades you had in wrestling, I'm really curious if WWE ever reached out to you because they love high-level community. What's that? I went down there in October. to the performance center? Mm-hmm. And how'd that go? It was fun.

They were really cool. But at no point, like your collegiate career, they ever reached out to you? Well, yeah, there was this guy named Jerry Briscoe. Gerald Briscoe, yeah. It's a legend. He's great. He would always come to all the NCAA tournaments. And actually, you know the thing?

He always just tell me, he would tell me like every single year. Ben, if you were over 200 pounds, I can make you a million dollars. And I said, Jerry, I'm not going to be that big ever. So sorry. And I want to wrestle in the Olympics. So it's not all that interested. You know, and so actually when I was at the performance center, Jerry came over and

I was there for two days, hung out with me and we bullshit. And he's a great guy. So does this mean there's a possibility that after this fight we could see you in WWA? I left with an open door there. I don't, again, right, I'm running my wrestling academy business. I don't think of something I would do full time. I would be, you know, I would be interested in doing a little something with them.

They were so cool. I really liked everyone I met. They were on a really professional operation down there. It was awesome. Well, don't you want to become a millionaire? I am. I meant the Gerald Briscoll thing, what he's talking about. Well, I already am.

I has accomplished it a different way. Yeah, you're right. It doesn't really matter. Yeah, I'm good. It would be interesting, though, to see you in WWA. Maybe I'll do one match. You never know. I guess, yeah, we'll never know.

Funky's a great WWE name. It would be, yeah. I mean, I'd play myself, obviously. I could go in there, tie someone in a knot real quick and be done with it. Who was the first person to give you that nickname, Funky? It was one of my college teammates. He showed up into the NCAA tournament with, it was just a picture of me, and then it just said Funky on it.

And that was, and then a whole bunch of people went nuts over it. And the next year we made, you know, NCA athletes can't sell merchandise because the NCAA is a correct organization. But we, we hawked him in the parking lot, $20 a piece. He sold like $500. Oh, my God. Yeah, right? It was sweet.

We were getting rich for college kids. You know, you have the whole set up here with the microphone and the earpiece because you have a podcast. Multiple. Yes, multiple podcasts. If someone listening to this is interested in buying Bitcoin, what position, what entry point should they be looking for? As soon as possible. Really?

Yeah. I mean, so, well, I guess the smarter way would be they call it dollar cost averaging, meaning you're just going to set a specific day and time, take the emotions out of it. You're going to buy once a month, once a week, whatever your time frame is, and put in there a comfortable amount of money that is not, you know, you're not going to lose your house if you lose it or something. Right. but I'm sure there's a lot of people this year who are going to buy at the top of the market.

So Bitcoin is very cyclical. It has been this. I think we're on the fourth cycle right now. It will probably reach its pinnacle of this cycle somewhere in quarter four. And yeah, there's going to be a lot of people who buy at the peak of it and they probably lose money because they're going to sell it sometime next year when it goes back down. And they're not going to wait long enough. I also was an idiot the first time. I bought not at the highest, but as it was going up in 2017.

What did you buy it at? First Bitcoin. So the problem I had in 2017 was Coinbase would not let me buy enough. They had a $4,000 a week limit on purchases. And then I also bought a few different ICO scams, which was that was really stupid. I shouldn't have done that. But, you know, I was new, so I didn't really know. So I remember the first time my buddy told me about Bitcoin.

I was in Shanghai, China, and I was fighting. And it was a week before my September 2nd fight. So it was like August 25 or something like that. And it was just crossing $4,000 for the first time. So I started buying some then. I bought kind of in the run up of that fall slash winter. And then I watched it all the way through the bear market. I kind of like, I had this feeling that it was going to be the future.

And I didn't sell anything at the top of the last cycle because I thought I thought that it was going to be a long-term winner, right? And I wasn't in there for the short, you know, buy and sell type thing. And I still think it is. Like, I think that Bitcoin is going to be the dominant monetary policy for the world in the next century. So I'm in the long-line. It's like 65,000 right now? Oh, not that high. We are, the highest has ever been with 62, but I think it's, I'll just tell you right now.

I would say 57, 58 right now. we're at 58193 so it's a little bit down from its peak um is this like still a good spot to enter though i think so yes i so listen i am not i'm not giving financial advice and i'm not the smartest person market i'm just listening to and regurgitating what other smarter people the me are saying and you know on the low end the smarter people think it's going to go to 100k but i think the highest prediction for this cycle is 350k uh per bitcoin um so that's kind of right that's kind of your range. I have not seen anyone who would be an expert on the subject,

predicting anything less than six figures by the end of the year. Man, there was talk about you getting paid for this fight in Bitcoin. That's not true. I don't see the point in that. I mean, am I going to take some of my winnings and buy some Bitcoin with it? I am.

That's for sure, right? Yeah. But I just don't see the point in getting paid in Bitcoin. If I want to buy Bitcoin, I'm going to turn out buy it, which I will be buying some for sure, right? but I don't understand why people like need to get it in that and then in I don't know I still understand it is this is this like a contract set up the same way a UFC is it's a certain amount to show and a certain amount to win uh well it's just a one fight deal so it's not like a UFC

would have so if you win or lose you make the same amount of money yeah well I'm pulling for you to win and I feel like every fight fan really wants to shut this guy up. Nobody likes him. That was something I definitely did not understand when I signed the contract. I knew the Paul brothers were relatively well-known,

right? They had big followings. I didn't really know why. I definitely did not know how unlike he was. I mean, nobody likes this guy. It's hilarious. Do you like him? He doesn't seem like that like a guy.

would be friends with. I mean, I don't know, right? I haven't been around him at all for sure. But just a few of the videos I've watched and I probably wouldn't like that guy. I think you're going to like him even less after this press conference. Or maybe he'll like me less. Never know. Oh, do you have some stuff that you've been figuring out?

I do. I'm not going to show up to a press conference without something to say. That's the whole point of a press conference. This is going to be great. There's nothing more annoying when someone shows up to a press conference. I'm just here to fight. No, dummy. We're at a press conference.

We're here to talk. There is no fighting at the press conference. Let's sell. I mean, the last fight was one of the top selling pay-per-views of all time. Who, Nate Robinson? Well, it was also Mike Tyson. Roy Jones, yeah. Right.

I saw that. Really? How many of the pay-per-views they sell? I don't know the number of it. It was like, I think it was number eight of all time. Of all time. Are you sure? You've also got a lot of factors.

This is COVID. Everybody's sitting in their home. Yeah. Obviously, a huge fight with two huge names. Yeah, you're in California. That's like a different world as far as coronavirus is concerned. Yeah, I know it still exists here very much. Yeah.

As you know. In the Midwest over here, we're, we are kind of getting close to the end, it feels like. And then like in Florida, they're running a sold-out show next month. It's wild. What's it going to be like in Atlanta where your fight is? No fans. No fans. No fans.

I know we're in a football stadium and there's no fans. That was not my choice. would have chosen to have fans if I got to have a choice, but it was not my choice. Yeah, this should be done in Florida. At least have a handful of fans there. Absolutely. Ben, I really appreciate you taking the time to do this. Yeah, no problem.

This is fun. Man, I'm looking forward to your fight. Yeah, it should be fun. I'm looking forward to it also press conference next week. That should be fun. Yeah, let's get after it. Well, you told Ariel Hawani that your prediction was a seventh round knockout. I'm sick.

Jake told Ariel Hawani a first round knockout. Is that still what you're going with? I'm going to seven-term knockout, yes. There it is. Seventh round knockout. Ben, I end every interview by talking about gratitude because I'm a big gratitude guy. You see it here. Be great.

Be grateful. What are three things in your life that you're grateful for right now? Wow. We'll say my family. That's great. I'll say Bitcoin. That's been tremendous to me. And we'll see my wrestling academies because I love coaching there.

The Bitcoin Millionaire. That's it. Absolutely. Ben, thank you so much. All right. Well, there we go. April 17th, it's Ben Ascran versus Jake, Paul, and it's going to be so interesting to see how this fight goes.

I mean, if you watch that Mike Tyson and Roy Jones fight, you'll know Triller puts on a great show with these pay-per-views. So whether or not it's a great boxing match, the event as a whole will be a great event. Take a screenshot. Let me know what stood out for you the most from this interview. Tag us on social media. I'm at Chris Van Vleet. Ben is at Ben Ascran.

Heck, tag Jake Paul. Let him know that you're listening as well. He is at Jake Paul. And I think it's only fitting that we end this episode with a quote from Mike Tyson. More like the quote from Mike Tyson. I'm sure you've heard this before. Everyone has a plan till they get punched in the mouth. Be great.

Be grateful, my friends. We'll see on the next one for some more. insight. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do. With rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about.

You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of sports smack. Take advantage of it. Get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What's your beef? Follow and listen on your favorite platform.

You've been warned.