Top 66 Ben Askren Quotes

People who are great at what they do, they do it the same way no matter who the opponent is.

Nate Diaz sucks.

I don’t like Jay Hieron very much. He just bothers me, the way he talks, and he thinks very highly of himself.

I think a lot of fans don’t know MMA that well. They don’t understand the subtleties.

When I came through the ranks in wrestling – in high school and college – those systems have been in place for 100 years, and they’re fairly standard training across the board for all the colleges.

I just don’t get hit a lot. That’s what I’m good at.

Every single time you compete, I don’t care what it is, you want to perform the best you can, and I feel like I’m doing that.

I got in MMA for one reason: to see if I could be the best in the world.

Squash – definitely a rich’s person sport, and it’s only played in a handful of countries.

If I’m coaching at my academy, and we were drilling the front headlock, we don’t just say, ‘OK, now go five-minute goes,’ because how many tries are they gonna get at going at the front headlock position?

I fight with good strikers every day.

Young guys kind of have this chip on their shoulder of, ‘I want to prove something,’ right? ‘I’ve got to prove how tough I am. I’ve got to prove how good I am.’ And man, now as I’m getting older, I think it’s almost sad when guys my age and older still have that chip on their shoulder.

The worst 24- to 36-hour period of my whole camp, the part I like the least, is the part where I’ve gotta cut 13 to 15 pounds of water weight.

Some people who come from high levels in other backgrounds where they’re used to being the best or used to being on a kind of pedestal, it’s hard to kind of lower yourself again and just be one of the grunts. I kind of enjoyed that challenge in MMA.

I don’t think the number of followers has anything to do with how good I am fighting. That said, I am good at fighting, and I do have a lot of followers.

I don’t like all the cheating that’s going in mixed martial arts. I don’t know what percentage of high-level fighters do it, but I think it would be a significant amount.

I’m more of a purist competitor, and I enjoy the fighting aspect of it, but people enjoy my personality, and they enjoy that I tell the truth.

In MMA, all of these coaches are doing their best.

I have nothing against Bellator at all.

You need to take care of yourself first, and you can’t think of others quite as much if you want to be a successful competitor.

When you’re competing, you need to be selfish. You need to think of yourself first.

I’m dominant positionally, and my hands got power.

I like coaching a lot.

Listen folks, if you want your son to grow up to be a man, don’t have him run around on a field kicking a ball; get him wrestling.

It’s like, hey, I’ve done what I could do, I’ve accomplished a lot, and now this – especially with wrestling – if this next generation wants to pass me up, great job. Good for them.

When someone decides to come into the UFC, and they don’t have a combat sports background, you’re kind of thinking, ‘Does he really understand what he’s getting into?’

You know what, the thing about Bellator was, I beat everyone they had.

I’ve never feared anyone or worried what they said as long as what I’m telling is the truth, and I’m not telling lies about people.

My two things I always said is, No. 1, I’d be retired by the time I had my first kid, and No. 2, I’d be retired by the time I was 30.

If you can’t say where you’re going, you’re not going to get there. And I’ve known all along where I’m going, and sometimes the road takes a few curves that you didn’t see, but you’ve got to stay the path.

I’ll sell a million pay-per-views if you’re smart enough to market me the right way.

I just like taunting people.

I don’t care if you’re an Asian fan or an American fan: I’m happy to perform.

My view on wrestling in MMA is changed a lot since I started really doing it.

I don’t care about having a fancy car. I don’t have a lot of the wants and needs that a lot of people have where I would need to make a $1 million a fight.

One of my best qualities is my persistence.

I wouldn’t fight Tyron Woodley; we go way, way back.

One of my favorite topics to read about my whole life has just been famous athletes, and a lot of those have been combat athletes.

Colby Covington has a very low IQ. He says a lot of stupid things, and it’s almost embarrassing that he represents our country that way.

People are stubborn, and sometimes even if change is good, people will always oppose change.

When I say something, I generally stick to it, no matter what it is in life.

I wasn’t granted the opportunity to fight some of the best guys in the world. And that was something that was not on my end by any sense of the imagination.

I don’t hold grudges.

Obviously, everyone knows it is hard to hang it up, but I’m definitely going to try and do it the right way and not like how combat athletes have done and hold on too long for every last fleeting moment. I don’t want to be one of those people.

I’m open to a super fight.

I love running my business, and I love wrestling. I love helping kids.

If you can’t play the good guy, sometimes you’ve got to play the villain.

So I think there’s a lot of people who are really interested to see how good I really am, because they know I’m good, but they’re not really sure how good. They want to see that, and there’s definitely interest in that, but because of some other people’s shortsightedness, maybe it never really happens.

I don’t really want to be famous.

I don’t give a damn about my record.

If you’re competing right, if you’re doing it right, competition should be a very selfish pursuit.

When I’m thinking of sports, when I’m thinking of a boy growing up and being a man, I’m thinking of three things – honor, integrity, and toughness.

I’ve been around the block. I travel a lot to gyms.

While it may not have been the flashiest or the most creative, I brought a very unique skill set, and I executed in a fashion that very few have done before me and, I think, very few will do after me.

I’m just a straightforward kind of dude.

I don’t try to hide my feelings or what I think.

In wrestling, if you want to be the best wrestler, you show up at the U.S. Nationals. If you win that, you go to World Team Trials. You make the World Team, you go to the World Championships, and we all know who the best is at the end of the year.

There are conferences every year where all the major coaches get together, and they talk about the issues in wrestling, what’s going to happen. There’s a major governing body, U.S.A. Wrestling, which oversees a lot of the issues. The organization is there in wrestling to make a very well-balanced, organized system.

A male athlete’s peak, I believe, should be somewhere between 26 and 30.

Dana White’s a scumbag. I don’t take anything he says with any value.

Obviously, in a sport like golf, we see Tiger Woods fall off. There’s not really too much damage he can take from that, although when you watch him and he sucks, and you’re like, ‘God, you used to be so good but you suck now,’ it’s disconcerting as a fan.

I think Georges St-Pierre should go down to fight Tyron Woodley. I think he has a chance.

I’m not really a soccer fan. I understand they have skill and all that running up and down the pitch and what not.

When I couldn’t sign with the UFC, I think my goal of being Number 1 in the world went out the window. There’s just no way of doing that at Welterweight without being in the UFC. I could go 50-0, and as long as it’s outside the UFC, I’m not going to be Number 1.

If your coach ain’t got your back, who’s got your back?

I try to wrestle one time a week with good, solid people.