Ben ‘Funky’ Askren

[Dark Energy]

95% of the time, I really enjoy listening to Ben.  His attitude about coaching, his focus on mental aspects, his desire to focus on facts and data and being willing to admit errors.  Good sense of humor.  Incredible wrestler.  Seems like a sharp guy.
 

His speculation with Crypto and desire to get people, who really don’t understand it, to put money into it, goes counter to the sense of moral courage he seems to champion.  You can’t shill speculative investments to the masses and look yourself in the mirror and say ‘I’m doing the right thing for society.’  So that confuses me.  
 

As does his willingness to jump on conspiracy bandwagons with little hard evidence and court after court calling BS - never seeming to pause and say hey .. am I an objective critical thinker or simply a semi-blind believer in what I want to believe?  That also flies in the face of the intelligent and deep thinker I hear on Flo.

He is an enigma.  I guess I will continue to enjoy his takes on wrestling and athletics.  Really enjoy it.

Need to buy his book.  Anyone read it yet?  Thoughts?

[MPhillips]

10 minutes ago, Dark Energy said:

You can’t shill speculative investments to the masses and look yourself in the mirror and say ‘I’m doing the right thing for society.’

"If you believe it you can achieve it."

 

I enjoy Ben. I laugh every time he calls folks, "dummies."   I like his wrestling breakdowns. I just think he lives in his own small world which is fine by me.

Enigma is a good take.

 

[billyhoyle]

2 hours ago, Dark Energy said:

95% of the time, I really enjoy listening to Ben.  His attitude about coaching, his focus on mental aspects, his desire to focus on facts and data and being willing to admit errors.  Good sense of humor.  Incredible wrestler.  Seems like a sharp guy.
 

His speculation with Crypto and desire to get people, who really don’t understand it, to put money into it, goes counter to the sense of moral courage he seems to champion.  You can’t shill speculative investments to the masses and look yourself in the mirror and say ‘I’m doing the right thing for society.’  So that confuses me.  
 

As does his willingness to jump on conspiracy bandwagons with little hard evidence and court after court calling BS - never seeming to pause and say hey .. am I an objective critical thinker or simply a semi-blind believer in what I want to believe?  That also flies in the face of the intelligent and deep thinker I hear on Flo.

He is an enigma.  I guess I will continue to enjoy his takes on wrestling and athletics.  Really enjoy it.

Need to buy his book.  Anyone read it yet?  Thoughts?

My take on Askren is that he is a genius-he essentially reinvented folkstyle wrestling. The only other person I've seen do it is John Smith, but arguably Askren's effect was even more significant because of how different it was.

But like a lot of geniuses/creatives, he is drawn to outlandish conspiracies and nonsense. And because he is so brilliant at one thing (wrestling), he is convinced that even his most ridiculous ideas outside of the sport are correct.  So I can't listen to his FRL or read his book because so much of what I have seen from him recently makes no sense to me. I prefer his wrestling opinions. 

Edited October 31, 2022 by billyhoyle

[BobDole]

I concur, I love his wrestling takes and the way he breaks down wrestling things. When he's not talking about wrestling I tune him out. He did call me a legend one time, so I have to at least semi-like the guy.

[Wrestleknownothing]

10 minutes ago, BobDole said:

I concur, I love his wrestling takes and the way he breaks down wrestling things. When he's not talking about wrestling I tune him out. He did call me a legend one time, so I have to at least semi-like the guy.

He called me a wimp, so yeah, I semi-like the guy, too.

[PortaJohn]

11 minutes ago, Wrestleknownothing said:

He called me a wimp, so yeah, I semi-like the guy, too.

I wouldn't feel too bad about that. Askren called Jorge Masvidal "George" and Kamaru Usman "Marty".

[Crotalus]

I'm great at separating the art from the artist. As a Mizzou fan, I'm also a huge fan of Askren when it comes all things folkstyle wrestling. But like others have said, I tune out everything else he talks about. I also don't listen to FRL, so that helps. 

[Jason Bryant]

I wouldn't feel too bad about that. Askren called Jorge Masvidal "George" and Kamaru Usman "Marty".

TBF, pretty much everyone in wrestling called him Marty. I made a point to put his full first name when I had him in interviews at the training center and he’s in my phone as Kamarudeen, but it’s hard for a lot of us who met and knew him as such to not catch ourselves calling him Marty. I don’t mean any disrespect by it but it’s sometimes hard to not do it when I covered him in college and when he was at the OTC.

[Theo Brixton]

Snoop Dog was involved in the Jake Paul-Ben Askren circus last year. I have to imagine he was endlessly amused by Ben's use of the "Funky" nickname.  

[Bigbrog]

I agree...Ben is an amazing wrestling mind and love hearing him talk wrestling.  But sometimes "celebrity/athletes" think just because they are uber smart in the sport they do, that translates over into other topics such as politics and other issues (ex. Ben, Labron, etc.) when in fact it does not...at all.

[BigRedFan]

37 minutes ago, Bigbrog said:

I agree...Ben is an amazing wrestling mind and love hearing him talk wrestling.  But sometimes "celebrity/athletes" think just because they are uber smart in the sport they do, that translates over into other topics such as politics and other issues (ex. Ben, Labron, etc.) when in fact it does not...at all.

What is worse is that people fall for "argumentum ab auctoritate" (argument from authority) and lend credence to and spread these ideas.

[Wrestej]

Ben put Mizzou wrestling on the map.  I will be forever grateful.