Олимпын аварга Хенри Сехудогийн барилдааны үеэр үзүүлсэн тэсвэр тэвчээрийн дутагдлыг Бен Аскрен хүлээн зөвшөөрөх боломжгүй гэж үзэж байна.
Долдугаар сарын 18-нд болсон RAF 11 тэмцээнд Бен Аскрен уушги шилжүүлэн суулгах хагалгаанд орсныхоо дараа анхны тулаанаа хийж, Белал Мухаммадад шүүгчдийн шийдвэрээр ялагдсан билээ. Үүнээс долоо хоногийн өмнө болсон RAF Georgia тэмцээнд Хенри Сехудо Мераб Двалишвилийн эсрэг 8-0 харьцаатай тэргүүлж явсан ч, эцсийн мөчид хүч тамир нь суларсны улмаас 11-8 харьцаагаар хожигдсон юм. Аскрен өөрийн биеийн байдлыг харгалзан үзэж болох ч, Сехудогийн гуравдугаар үе дээр хөл дээрээ тогтож чадахгүй болтлоо ядарсныг шүүмжилж, түүнийг хангалттай бэлтгэл хийгээгүй гэж дүгнэжээ.
Аскрений үзэж буйгаар, Сехудо олимпын аваргын туршлагадаа хэт найдаж, богино хугацаанд өрсөлдөгчөө буулган авахыг зорьсон нь алдаа болсон байна. Тэрээр Сехудог өрсөлдөгчөө хэд хэдэн удаа эргүүлж оноо авсан ч, нэмэлт нэг эргүүлэлт хийж тулааныг дуусгах хүч нь хүрээгүй нь бэлтгэлийн дутагдалтай холбоотой гэв.
Өөрийн биеийн байдлын талаар Аскрен тайлбарлахдаа, уушгины асуудал гэхээсээ илүүтэй зүрхний үйл ажиллагаа удаан хугацаанд ачаалал аваагүйгээс үүдсэн “зүрхний сулрал” нь түүнийг ядаргаанд оруулсан гэдгийг онцолсон юм. Хэдийгээр Мераб Двалишвили 2024 онд UFC 298 тэмцээнд Сехудог ялж байсан ч, тэд наймдугаар сарын 22-нд RAF 12 тэмцээний хүрээнд дахин гурав дахь удаагаа тулалдахаар товлогджээ.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – DECEMBER 06: Henry Cejudo enters the Octagon in a bantamweight fight during the UFC 323 event at T-Mobile Arena on December 06, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)
Ben Askren and Henry Cejudo both suffered recent RAF defeats, but Askren feels like his fellow MMA champion let himself down.
At RAF 11 on July 18, Askren competed for the first time since undergoing a double-lung transplant following a traumatic near-death experience, losing a decision to former UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad. A week prior, at RAF Georgia, Cejudo was defeated by Merab Dvalishvili after a stunning collapse that saw Cejudo blow an 8-0 lead.
Askren and Cejudo are both retired from MMA, with Askren having last fought in 2019 and Cejudo in 2025, with Cejudo ending his career in an 0-4 slump after returning from a three-year hiatus. As impressive as Cejudo looked against Dvalishvili to start, Askren is disappointed he couldn’t finish the job.
“I will say—and I would say this to Henry, I haven’t spoken to him—but man, I had a lung transplant so I think I’ve got an excuse for getting really tired, but my man got really tired,” Askren said on The MightyCast with Demetrious Johnson. “He needs to have a good excuse for that because he got so tired he was having a hard time standing on his feet in the third period.”
The final score of the Dvalishvili vs. Cejudo bout was 11-8, a disappointing finish for the Olympic gold medalist and former two-division UFC champion. That was Dvalishvili’s second combat sports win over Cejudo after Dvalishvili also defeated him by decision at UFC 298 in 2024. They are set for a third meeting at RAF 12 on Aug. 22.
Askren hopes that Cejudo is better prepared for a long contest after it looked like he expected to put Dvalishvili away quickly.
“But you’ve got to get a few sessions in,” Askren said. “You’re going to agree to wrestle, you’ve got to get in there and train a little bit. He was as elite as it gets. I think, here’s my guess, Henry says, ‘I don’t need to train. I’m an Olympic champion. I’m going to go put him away.’ And he did, in fact, almost put him away.
“He needed two more points and the match was over. I think he probably thought, ‘Hey, I’m going to get on top once,’ because getting on top in freestyle, if you don’t know freestyle, you’re not going to turn anyway. But if you know freestyle and they don’t know freestyle, you should just go boom boom boom boom boom and Henry turned him, I think, maybe three times and all he needed was one more turn and the match was over. So I think he probably thought, ‘I’m going to go get on top one time, I’m going to boom boom boom, four turns, that’s eight points, match is going to be over.’”
Askren, a two-time NCAA Division-I wrestling champion, knows firsthand how challenging RAF competition can be. He lost on points to Muhammad and afterwards admitted that fatigue was a huge factor. Though Askren has no plans to wrestle again, he wanted to clarify that his newly transplanted lungs were fine and his energy issues had more to do with an underprepared heart.
“The hardest thing to get back has been my cardio,” Askren said. “It’s funny because I actually misspoke because I was so tired. I said, ‘My lungs hurt,’ I meant to say my lungs don’t hurt, it’s my legs. My legs just fall off a cliff at some point. My best guess from my research on ChatGPT is that it’s from something called ‘heart deconditioning.’ If you don’t use your heart effectively, it gets weaker, right? It’s a muscle and I couldn’t use it, I couldn’t make myself work hard for somewhere between six and eight months. It’s getting better constantly, but it’s taking a while.”
