My Mom's Basement - EPISODE 7 - BEN ASKREN

Episode Date: May 6, 2019

"Funky" Ben Askren joins the show this week from the New York Athletic Club, where he sat down with Robbie ahead of his freestyle wrestling exhibition match versus Jordan Burroughs at Beat the Streets in New York City, and he has a whoooole lot to say about growing the sport, the differences between preparing for a fight and a wrestling match, fearlessness, his UFC future, cryptocurrency, and much, much, more! Everybody's favorite segment Goof or No Goof returns!!! Outro Music: "Live to Rise" - SoundgardenYou can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/mymomsbasement

Hey My Mom's Basement listeners, you can find our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, and Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Make sure you subscribe to My Mom's Basement if you haven't already, leave us a rating and review, something I'm much more personally tied to than the financial success of a superhero movie. But hey, that's what this show's all about. We're passionate about a lot of stuff, and one of the things we're passionate about here is mixed martial arts. On today's show, I have Ben Askren from the UFC, who I spoke with ahead of his freestyle wrestling match with Jordan Burroughs at Beat the Streets New York City, the Grapple at the Garden, which is taking place today, May 6th. Ben was awesome. He took the time out of his busy schedule to sit down with me in New York City at the New York Athletic Club yesterday, and it was just an absolute delight getting to speak to this dude. He's a hysterical guy. He's down to earth. I'm very excited for you to listen to this. Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, Funky to the show. I am joined by a very special guest. The show is young, but this still feels like a long time coming. Ben Askren, welcome to the show.

Thank you for doing it. Thank you for making the time. Absolutely. I heard your fun interview, so let's go. Okay, well, I'm happy to hear that. You were a fun interviewee because when I showed up today, you kind of kidnapped me. Well, I mean, we had stuff to do, so sometimes you've got to roll with us. Had stuff to do, and literally I was waiting for

Buddha Ben, our cameraman. He shouldn't have been slow. That's the name of his game. And you just came, got me in the lobby, and you were like, let's go. We're gonna eat. Yeah, I've weighed in. Yeah. You know, after weigh-ins, you gotta go eat. And we went, and we ate. You weighed in for Beat the Streets, Grapple at the Garden, at the Hulu Theater

at MSG. It's gonna be 6 p.m. tonight on Flow Wrestling. This comes out on Monday. Okay, Monday night. Oh yeah, I It's going to be 6 p.m. tonight on Flow Wrestling. This comes out on Monday. Okay, Monday night. Oh yeah, I'm ahead of it. 6 p.m. tonight. And you will be taking on Jordan Burroughs in a wrestling match. This is your first wrestling match. Straight wrestling in how long? Well, I did a few pro ones that had mixed rules in like

2012 or 2013 maybe. But freestyle, I was trying to remember. I think I wrestled one match after. I wrestled Beat the Streets, the first one they ever did, 2010, freestyle. It was on the Intrepid, which is in the harbor there on the Hudson River. And I wrestled one match after that also in 2010. So I haven't wrestled a straight freestyle match since 2010. Since 2010, and Jordan Burroughs has pretty much been at the top of his game since 2011.

Yes. Doing straight freestyle and stuff like this. Is this the first wrestling match you've come in as a quote-unquote underdog in? Oh, I mean, I would say no. I mean, even when I came back in 2010, I went international and faced some really good guys. 2008, even going into the U.S. Open, I wasn't a favorite because I didn't have a great 2007. So I won the Open and won the trials. But no, I mean, obviously, I'm probably a large underdog, you would say, tomorrow.

Jordan's one of the best to ever do it in America. How do you feel about your chances, though? I would say the same thing. I'm a huge underdog. Like I said, kind of within the press conferences, when you get offered a challenge, you don't say no just if you think you're going to win. You just say no because you like the challenge. And that's why I said yes.

Well, you're a savage, and we love you for that. So how is preparing for this different than preparing for a fight, other than the obvious, okay, you're not sparring and you're not doing stuff like that? For me, that's it. That's it? That's it. The mentality is the same, though?

Yeah. I mean, Kyle and I were – Kyle Snyder, who went to lunch with us, he was talking about, oh, I'd be somewhere nervous if it was an MMA fight. And it's like, maybe in your first or second when you think, okay, well, this guy's probably trying to punch me or kick me in the head. It's probably not good for me. But then after that, competition is competition, right? I've got to get rid of win no matter what techniques I'm going to use,

whether it's a single leg or whether it's a punch or a chokehold, it doesn't matter. I mean, really, if you're worried about all those bad things that can happen in fighting, your mind is in a place where it shouldn't be and you're probably not going to compete that well. Well, I want to talk about the bad things that could happen while you're fighting because you were in attendance for George Masvidal versus Darren Till. The finish of that fight was deadly. It was...

Well, not dead. I mean... Not literally. Listen, yeah, not literally deadly, but it was devastating. It was. I mean, it made me poop my pants a little bit watching Darren Till get knocked out. Did your mom watch it for you? Oh, my God.

She did. Of course she did. She's the best. But you're in the front row there. Yeah. You watching that knowing, OK, I have to fight this lunatic next. What goes through your mind when you watch that knockout? Are you just like, man, what a knockout?

That was awesome. Or are you like, jeez. Well, I was disappointed because George was already making excuses at that point of why he wasn't going to fight me. And I know you weren't, Darren. And Till was all in. So, you know, I thought I lost my next opponent right when that happened. That's what I was kind of upset about. I mean, that's stuff that happens in MMA, right? I mean, even in that exact same fight, in the first 10 seconds, Till drops mobs and all,

and I thought the fight was going to be over in the first— Yeah, with the first punch. I mean, it was like literally almost—because there was the nut kick right away. Yeah. And that— That was crazy. The nut kick was one of the craziest things I've ever seen. That was so bizarre.

It was a running nut kick to start the fight. Running nut kick. So I don't know if, you know, in MMA anything can happen, and you just have to be ready for that. That's part of the game. That's part of what you sign up for. So when I watched that, you know the thing? I didn't see a knockout like that coming. But one of the things I started noticing in that fight is Till's head is like way up in the middle of nowhere.

Yeah. And he started getting hit more and more as the fight went on. And I was saying, wow, that's not very good. And then sure enough, he connects. But no, so when you're going into a competition, if you're worried about all the bad things that can happen, that generally leads to a really poor performance, and you shouldn't really be thinking about those things. Before we move on and jump fully into UFC, tell me what it is about Beat the Streets that keeps you coming back, and even what it is for some of the people that may not know.

So, yeah, Beat the Streets was a charity that started out in New York City. It's now in various metropolitan areas. The idea is that wrestling is underserved in the metro areas in the United States. And a group of people, Mike Novogratz and others, started Beat the Streets. I think it was 2009, and the first match they had was 2010. But they've raised a tremendous amount of money. They've started all kinds of wrestling programs. And I know sports in general, getting kids involved in something good,

getting them off the streets, great. There's something special about wrestling that just changes people's lives. And I've seen it in my own experience. I've seen it all the way from when I was younger and seeing other kids growing up. Now as a coach, I see it. And so anything for me, and I coach youth wrestling, so anything for me that puts good, valued adults in front of kids and gets kids into the sport of wrestling. So anything for me that puts good, valued adults in front of kids and gets kids into

the sport of wrestling. One thing I think is, I think it's just a one-on-one, right? Yep. I'm going to battle you. One of us is going to lose. One of us is going to have to deal with that. We're going to come back and we're going to do it again. Then we're going to practice it and we're going to figure out why we lost and we're

trying to get better at it. And that's a lot like life. Life, you don't always win. You've got to figure out how to deal with the shitty parts too. And it seems in wrestling and other combat sports, the stakes are Life, you don't always win. You've got to figure out how to deal with the shitty parts, too. And it seems in wrestling and other combat sports, the stakes are just, they feel heightened in every match, even as minuscule a match. Even this match, it doesn't necessarily mean anything. There's no titles on the line, per se, or anything like that. But it feels like it's like a big fight feel.

It feels like the stakes are high. It's a dream match, people are calling it. So definitely check that out. It's on Flow Wrestling, correct? So if you can't be there at Madison Square Garden, you can watch it on Flow Wrestling tonight at 6 p.m. Yeah, I mean, the other thing to go back to wrestling is, you know, a lot of team sports, you know, what I see with kids, especially these helicopter parents. I don't know if your parents were, Robbie.

But you can always blame it on somebody else. There's 11 people on the field. You can always say it's this guy's fault or that guy's fault and helicopter parents are more than happy to do that and in wrestling

it's like it's you versus them and some shitty parents will say oh it's the coach's fault or this or that but at the end of the day you know in your heart

it's your damn fault it's my fault I didn't win if I want to get better I need to figure it out yeah could you tell I was a wrestler growing up

just talking to me really where at Richfield Park I had a wrestler growing up? Just talking to me. Really? Where at? Richfield Park. Just at Jersey or New York? New Jersey. Okay, nice. I was two and one professionally, you know, overall career. I won my first match.

Okay. Got a double leg, headlock, pin. Nice. Awesome. Won my second match. I think I teched a guy or something. I was nine years old. I don't really remember.

And then my third match, ooh, first home match, I got teched so bad that i thought the guy broke my ribs and i was crying and i was telling my parents i just kept repeating over and over again i was like i'm crying because i'm hurting not because i lost i swear i'm not a sore loser and i quit never went back what never went back so you needed to have a good coach that said robbie it's okay to take an ass whipping once in a while let's get back in the gym and let's get better. I was a pussy then, and I'm a pussy now. I'll tell you that. So you actually got some nice words of, I guess, support from John Cavanaugh

leading into this fight. Did you see that? I did see that. You know, and it's— That made me laugh because Jordan said, Are you scared when he landed in New York City? You know, and I think he was joking. Yeah.

But, of course, I'm going to fire back on Twitter. That's what I do. I mean, that's the name of your game, yeah. That's the name of my game. And Jon Cavanaugh said, yeah, a guy that fights in a cage, getting elbowed in the face, is scared of a double leg. I'm sure he's petrified. That's probably, okay, so let's talk about that statement

because I think it's interesting. So, and Jordan mentioned the MMA people on Twitter. Well, I think you just get, you probably have dumb parts of any crowd, right? Yeah. You have a dumb part of the MMA crowd., right? You have a dumb part of the MMA crowd, a dumb part of the wrestling crowd. But there's obviously a lot of things to be fearful of. It's not just like fear of injury. You go in a cage, most people will be feared because there's a fear that this guy is going to try to kill me. I'm going to get hurt.

Yep. But people are so scared of getting tired is a huge one that I see in youth athletics. Losing, being embarrassed. So there's all kinds of fear. Oh, yeah. Right? So the thought that just because I fight in a cage. Now, generally speaking, I don't have a lot of fear in life because I figured it was a negative emotion, so I just did away with it many, many years ago.

You seem like the most fearless man on earth. Well, it's a terrible emotion, so I just did away with it. I said, no fear be gone. Geez, I wish I could do that. I wish I could do that. You just got to start practicing. Dude, my anxiety, terrible emotion. I can't just do away with it. I said, no fear be gone. Jeez, I wish I could do that. I wish I could do that. You just got to start practicing. Dude, my anxiety, terrible emotion.

I can't just do away with my anxiety. Just do away. Just one day. I get excited about going to the bathroom. I'm like, the most simple things in life. I'm just like, stressing. Well, you got to start just going for it. So find something that scares you and go for it.

I mean, and that's what, you know, when we're talking about youth athletics again, one of the things that every parent wants to do is correct their kid's mistakes. Yep. And then kids, the other thing about fear, you fear to make mistakes because your parents are going to yell at you. Of course. So I tell every parent, just shut up. Let them go compete. The number one thing I want my athletes to be is fearless.

I want them to go attack. And so, you know, we obviously talk about mistakes sometimes, but a lot of people are obsessive about it. And that's what you teach your kids when you coach wrestling. Give me great effort, be fearless, and we'll get everything else figured out for you. Wow. We might need to run like some kind of boot camp,

like a Get Robbie Fox Fearless with Ben Askren. You got to fly to Wisconsin and we'll get you a little less fearless. Listen, I'll do it. So going back to your man Masvidal. Yes. When you hear about the whole scuffle he had after that fight with Leon Edwards backstage, he said he gave him a three-piece in a soda. Yeah, I was there.

So I walked back. You saw it happen? I didn't see it happen. I walked back and I walked upstairs to do the interview upstairs. And then when I was ready to go down, they're like, no one can go downstairs. There was a fight. And do you think in that moment that, that your Masvidal fight slipped through maybe?

Oh, definitely. Well, I was already thinking that for, I already kind of thought that because of the week. And then that was like, I guarantee it's gone now. Yeah.

And you had a history with him. So even before this, I went back and dug up a tweet he sent to you. This was a tweet that in the moment I was like, man, this is outrageous. And I needed to bring it up to you. Let's go. He said, beg me. Excuse my language. Mom, if you're listening, excuse the French here. Beg me, you little slut. And just like a little slut whore, your day is coming. Hashtag host lap season. The fuck

was he talking about there? Listen, the man stuck on high school insults. I mean, Robbie. High school? That was gibberish. You probably remember this. That was absolute gibberish. Like you said, just out of high school? Nobody said stuff like that. Really? No. So I feel like people in high school said that. A little slut and just like

a little slut whore. And he tried saying teacher's pet one time. It's like what kind of insults are these these are terrible this guy's doing mad libs i'm doing twitter mad lips i don't know what he's talking about and i he keeps saying this one thing that is just like so ridiculous he's like uh i don't want to make you popular i don't want to say your name i saw it's like bro i have like five times the followers than you i'm way more shut up. Like, say something that actually makes any kind of sense

because you're not making sense right now. Yeah, so I'm not looking for you to be a mystic Mac per se, but in that fight, how do you see it going? What's your prediction

for the fight UFC 239 July 6th? You know, he's a survivor. Yeah. So I'm going to probably take him down and beat his ass. Okay.

Just over and over and over again. If for some reason he slips and lets me You're saying that like that intimidated me. That's why I got to get better with fearlessness. You just said you were going to kick somebody else's ass and I got to break it.

It's going to be you. Yeah, don't do that. Don't do that. Yeah, I mean, he can't stop a takedown. Maya took him down a whole bunch of times. And Maya's got a puny little pea-sized gas tank. I mean, he gets tired of every single fight. So if Maya takes you down, I'm

going to take you down whenever I want. Now, flipping this, you have a lot of rivalries, you call a lot of people out. I like to ask every fighter that I have on the show this question, because it intrigues me. Who do you enjoy watching as a fighter? Who are you looking at right now that you're saying, like, I've got to tune in for their fight, because I really like them?

Yeah, well, honestly, I would say I watch more wrestling than I do fighting. Like, there's a bunch of guys in that room, right? Because it's kind of the best of the best. I love watching those guys wrestle. I tune in every time they're on. Let's see. Fighting.

Who do I watch for sure? Anthony. Well, all my old teammates, obviously. Anthony Pettis, Tyron Woodley, all those guys, love watching them. Daniel Cormier, well, he's an old wrestling friend. So I guess there's guys I'm friends with. Okay. That's it.

I mean, there's no one. This Adesanya guy's kind of interesting. He's funny on Twitter, too. Very funny. Yeah, he's pretty sharp. Your UFC debut against Robbie Lawler was one of the most banana land fights I've ever seen in my entire life. Yeah. You went in there.

You shot for, what, a double, a single? Single leg. Shot for a single. Arm drag. And he picks you up and he hits you with like a burning hammer. I don't know what that is. Dead valley driver. Don't know.

John Cena's attitude adjustment. I don't watch Professor Wrestling. It's a shame because all of those work in this scenario. Okay. So anyways. Slams you on your head. I took his back. I shot. He dumps you on your anyways. Slams you on your head. I take his back. I took his back. He dumps you on your head.

I drag. And you survive. I had his back. And then what happened was I didn't respect his power enough. I should have respected it a little more. I didn't think he would be able to get me up. Obviously, once you go up, then you've got to come down. Yeah, he got you up.

So it went up and then went down fast. Well, the bad part, the slam didn't hurt. I followed the time. It's wrestling, right? On your head? Yeah, no big deal. I didn't follow up and then went down fast. Well, the bad part, the slab didn't hurt. I followed the time. It's wrestling, right? On your head? Yeah, no big deal. I didn't fall. I kind of rolled through, you know?

But the bad part was in the meantime, my wrist got trapped underneath me. That was the really bad part because then I was open to getting struck many, many, many times. So many times. I was so terrified for you, bro. That was the bad part. But you know what? I told people, like, I didn't want to show you guys how tough I was. And I don't want to show you guys that I can deal with adversity and tough shit and get through it and go get it.

But I showed that, right? Yeah. It's another weapon in my arsenal. And so now everyone knows, you know, people in MMA might have had this delusion. Well, if I can stop his takedown and hit him a few times, he's going to quit. No, I'm not going to quit. I'm going to come at you like a mother-effing honey badger until I get what I want. Yes.

Everyone going into that fight was saying there's so many unknowns about Ben Askren. That word was being thrown around a ton. Unknown, unknown, unknown. The one unknown that we could definitely say is now gone is your heart, your toughness. Yeah, absolutely. That was terrifying. And then you went and choked him out afterwards, and there was a little controversy. I think at this point the dust has settled.

Everyone kind of agrees with the decision. After Herb went on, Joe Rogan talked about it. I think John McCarthy has talked about it. Luke Thomas did a good breakdown of it. It seems like Robbie Lawler did go out in that moment. Moving on to this, you've been pushing for a 165-pound championship. I had Dana on my show. Dana came on your show?

He was the first guest, actually. Stop. He was, yeah. How did you get him as the first guest? I hit him up. I said, Uncle Dana, would you like to be the first guest in my house basement? Yeah. Yeah.

Wow. Cool. And it just happened. And I brought the 165-pound championship up to him. And you actually saw his response. You reposted it. Because his response was, it'll never happen in my lifetime. He's like, I'm here for another

seven years. But Robbie, when he says that, when he says things like that, you're smart. I've been following MMA long enough to know that that's not true. The more he says that, the more you lean towards, this is probably true. I mean, that's just how it goes. He said that so many

times about so many things and it hasn't came true. What you lean towards is that – He said Jon Jones would never headline another card again. Yes. Guess who's headlining UFC 239? He headlined my last one too. Jon Jones needs to write me a check for the pay-per-view bonus.

Yeah. I think so. I think so too. He said women wouldn't fight in the UFC. He said women wouldn't fight in the UFC. He said all kinds of stuff. So what I lean towards when David starts using that type of language, to me, that says

there's something here and he's trying to squash it. Yeah, it seems so. Why do you push for that championship so much, the 165 pound? What intrigues you about that other than the 170? There was the tyrant in me thing. But either way,

the one thing I see, and I brought it up from a statistical standpoint, is that if you add the 155s and 170s together, two biggest divisions in the UFC, if you split them three ways, so you go 55, 65, 75, that is negating any 8500s coming down, which I think you'd probably see a couple. You would still be the three biggest divisions in the UFC. Yeah. So it's not like there's no – they keep saying there's nobody there. That just isn't – that's not true.

He thinks they're going to clear out the divisions. But another thing is – This is not true. They're looking for titles to headline every interview and all that, adding another title. They add interim titles left and right. Yes. I mean – And so it just makes so much sense.

Yeah. When you break all those things down, it makes so much sense. And then when he goes so hard against it, it's like, to me, that says, well, it's going to happen. And you've discussed that 165-pound title maybe being a contest to have between you and Habib Nurmagomedov. I would love to see you be the one to dethrone Habib. But what makes you think that your wrestling would negate his? Because I've watched him wrestle. I see it.

I feel it. And you just know you're better. I will beat him in the wrestling battle Wow, I would really love to see that Everyone knows me, I would love to see that Now, you have a podcast with our guy Front Row Brian Absolutely A new podcast, he was telling me a little bit about it

It's on the Rockfin Network It's called Rockfin, yeah, it's a brand new network It only started a month and a half ago And what he told me about it is that it's a blockchain cryptocurrency startup. Yeah, so essentially – What the hell is that? So the payment structure is on the blockchain. So let's see.

I'm going to give you this fast breakdown. There's essentially an algorithm that determines which creators are bringing value to the network every month. It's written in there, right? Yep. So every single month, creators get paid no matter what it's written in this algorithm okay so it just shoots the shoots the token to you as a creator um now anyone can put content on the idea is that networks like youtube being a network once they get so big the people who have helped build that value right because with creators with creators not coming on YouTube, YouTubers are worth nothing.

Yes. Now that YouTubers are worth a whole bunch of money, they tell you we want to pay you $0.04 for every 10,000 views or whatever. And, well, now you're – what do you say? Yes? What do you say? No? You say yes because you've got nowhere else to go. Rockfin is helping the creators that are helping them.

So essentially, right, the creators get tokens. them. So essentially, the creators get tokens. Okay. So you want the token. Bitcoin. Not Bitcoin. Token. The Rockfin token. It's REA token.

Anyways. But it's a similar thing. Let me get it. Similar thing. So if you have these tokens, you obviously would like, as a creator, to have these tokens be worth more. Right? Yep.

How do you make that happen? You make the network bigger. So now you say, hey, buddy, I made X amount of money last month. Why don't you come on the network? Now you get some more tokens. Now your token value goes up. Even though it's harder for you individually to get tokens because there's more creators, right? Yep.

But if the token value goes up, then everybody wins. Now essentially you and I, if we're both – well, I'm a creator. I don't know if you will be. Maybe someday. Now we both have stake in the network getting bigger. Nobody, no creators have stake in YouTube. Zero. Zero, yeah.

So that's kind of the idea behind it. So the guy who started it, he also started Flow Sports. And he even, you know, he said it. As we got bigger, people needed us more than we needed them. Yeah. So we could lowball them an offer. Because, well, where else are they going to go? So we lowball them an offer, and then are they going to go? So we lowball them an offer

and then we got them for way less than their value is. So the idea is he saw that issue. And you know who talks about it all the time and I need to sit down with him? Joe Rogan, no less than seven times, has talked about that issue of creators not being able to get their full value. And Joe Rogan definitely brings a ton of value

to places like YouTube, to Apple Podcasts, stuff like that. That guy should be paying up the ass. But that was blockchain and cryptocurrency with Ben Askren and Robbie Fox. I think I got it. I think I have a minor understanding of it. So it's not actually – so the website is not on the blockchain. Just the payment algorithm is through the blockchain.

That's why. When I listen back to this later, I'll get it. When I listen back later, I'll understand. So here we go. I have two final things. A game we'll play that I played with Dana. And one last question. If you could call out one fictional character. You've called out everyone there

as to call out in the real world. I want you to look at this camera right here and just call them out. So would I be having a fight with them? Oh yeah. Your next fight. There's a lot of people who I would you to look at this camera right here and just call him out. So would I be having a fight with them? Oh, yeah. Because there's a lot of people that I want. Your next fight. There's a lot of people who I would like to fight who they're just not that tough. That's fine.

So I just beat them up? You just beat them up. Oh, man. Go beat them up. I mean, you could say that about most of your opponents, no? Who should I call? Amy, who do I really dislike? Oh, Chuck Rhodes from Billions.

Call him out. Someone needs to beat Chuck Rhodes to death because he's a terrible human being. Why? Why? Have you not watched the show? It's obvious. No, I haven't seen it. Oh, okay.

You've got to watch the show. Then you get it. Oh, damn. That's the only TV show I watch. Billions? You don't watch Game of Thrones? Not a Game of Thrones guy? No.

Into none of the nerdy stuff? No. Damn. You and I may be not as similar as we would have thought. Goof or no goof? This is the final segment of the interview. I played this with Dana. Basically, I'm going to tell you a name, and you're going to tell me whether or not they're a goof.

Obviously, Dana uses goof like it's the worst insult of all time. And maybe tell me why. So number one, Jordan Burroughs. Oh, not a goof. Not a goof. No. You have a lot of respect for Jordan Burroughs, it seems. George Masvidal. Oh, total goof. Total goof? Why is he a goof. Not a goof. No. You have a lot of respect for George Burroughs, it seems. George Masvidal.

Oh, total goof. Total goof? Why is he a goof for that? Oh, he just tries to act so hard and so cool all the time. What do you think of his hair? He looks like a homeless. I'm trying to determine whether he wants to be like Che Guevara or Jesus. I don't know.

It's one of those two. Okay. Darren Till. He's in the middle. He's still young, so I'm going to give him some more years. At this point, he's a goof. I think maybe he could grow up and not be a goof. Okay, so there's potential there to get out of the goof status.

Although he did get arrested, so I guess he went further in the goof territory. Yeah, further down the goof spectrum for sure. Recently retired Brock Lesnar. I'd say not a goof. Not a goof. Made a lot of money Why not? Made great business decisions Seems like

I've never had a conversation with him Seems like a sharp business guy I mean he plays Vince and Dana like Yeah A fiddle Dana White himself Now I actually Such a goof

I brought your name up with Dana Did I be a goof? He did not give you a goof It surprised me That's funny It surprised me He was like no no Ben's not a goof? He did not give you a goof. It surprised me. That's funny. It surprised me. He was like, no, no, Ben's not a goof. Listen, I like Ben.

Ben doesn't know that I like him. He's telling the media that I don't. He's doing his thing, but, you know, he gave me the Dana response to that. Colby Covington. Such a goof. He's such a goof. You've got to do something about this guy for me. He won't fight me.

He's ridiculous. He posted Star Wars spoilers last year. I need you to get vengeance on my behalf for that. He didn't spoil the movie for me, but he spoiled it for a lot of my fellow nerds. You're going to need to do something about that for me. Okay, listen. He's the biggest goof on the roster. In all sincerity, he's a terrible person.

Terrible person. I've known people who have every stop along his way, and they all say a terrible person. There's no words for how much I hate this guy. Okay. Marty from Nebraska. Such a goof. Such a goof. He's terrible.

Are you looking for Marty after Masvidal? Marty or Colby, one of the two? I bet they're going to get announced for either the August 17th or the September 7th card. Okay. And then would you like to do one of them before the end of the year? Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Khabib Nurmagomedov one of them before the end of the year? Yeah, absolutely. Okay.

Khabib Nurmagomedov. I'm going to say not a goof. Not a goof? You don't mess with Khabib? I haven't really thought too much. Well, I'd fight him, but I think he's probably – he seems pretty intelligent, pretty well-spoken. I mean, obviously I don't agree with all of his beliefs, but, you know, that's fine. We can all have different beliefs.

Another person with vastly different beliefs, Conor McGregor. Oh, he's going into goof territory. He is? I mean, he got arrested for stabbing on someone's phone. He just keeps getting arrested. All kinds of rumors. And it's like, I don't know that he doesn't realize

that there's only X amount of earning potential. And he just keeps wasting years. Like, you know, he's going to go probably at least a year without fighting. He went a year before that without fighting. Went a year before that without, you know, like one fight a year. Yeah. Like, come on, man. Let's go.

The hunger. It's tough to see it get away from somebody like that. Yeah. Mike Perry. Hmm. Initially, I would have said goof. But I think he's trying to make an honest living in life. There's something about Mike Perry that originally I hated.

I think that he probably just grew up in a rough situation or something. I think I might hate him so much I love him. I've seen recent interviews with him that make me laugh so hard when he's talking about just being like a savage. Did you see the interview where he's talking about his corner yelling at him? He's like, I want my corner to get in the ring and fight them if they want me to fight him. He's like, if they're yelling, throw a kick at him. I want them to throw a kick at him. And he's just screaming about how he gets mad at his corner during fights.

Yeah, I'll say in the middle. I don't know. I think he's a lovable goof. I think he's like a good goof. Good. And finally, a softball for you. Dylan Dannis, my last guest on My Mom's Pitch. He's the biggest goof. The biggest goof there is. On the list. On the list you gave me, he's the biggest goof.

It's like, how long are you going to ride Conor's damn coattails for? And listen, stop talking. He couldn't even place at state. I know, but he said he wanted to wrestle you. I'm sure he did. Would you be open to doing some kind of exhibition like that? I want to play basketball with effing LeBron James. Jordan.

Jordan. Well, he's too old now. No, that would be the fun part about it. I mean, he's still beating me, but he's old. Yeah, it would be cooler to be like LeBron, but Jordan beat me at basketball than LeBron. Yeah, I want to play golf against Tiger Woods. I effing suck at golf. He sucks at wrestling.

But you are in semi-pro at disc golf? Well, I think the best in the world right now, Paul McBeth, I think he's going to come to a home course in June. All right. I think we're going to touch on that on another interview. Thank you so much for joining me. I appreciate it. I've got to get out to Wisconsin.

We'll do a boot camp where you could make me not a bitch. You could drain the fear from my body and maybe go disc golfing. I think that would be a good piece. All right. Thank you. All right. Thanks, Robbie. Appreciate it.

Thank you to Ben Askren once again for coming on the show, making the time for us in his busy schedule just one day out from a freestyle wrestling match at Beat the Streets against Jordan Burroughs, arguably the greatest American wrestler of all time at this point, I believe. Ben might have been the most requested guest I saw when I started My Mom's Basement, and if I do say so myself, his appearance lived up to the hype. He was a hysterical, down-to-earth dude who was just a joy to shoot the shit with. Before I get you out of here, I'm going to remind you one more time

to leave us a rating and review on iTunes and Spotify and everything else you could do that on. Throw us a subscribe if you haven't done that yet. And, uh, that's about it for me. I know this week was a bit on the shorter side, but if everything falls into place as it should, we will have a Friday bonus episode for you that you are not going to want to miss. Thank you so much for listening.

Thank you for subscribing. Thank you for joining me in my mom's basement. I'll talk to you next time.