Ben Askren has never sugarcoated his thoughts. The former ONE Championship and Bellator welterweight champion is known for his blunt, unfiltered takes on just about everything.
In a recent conversation with Brian Mazique ahead of RAF 11, Ben Askren revealed what may be the root of that honesty: he believes he is on the autism spectrum.
When Mazique asked what motivates Askren to be such an open book in a competitive environment where most athletes carefully guard their words, Askren pointed to his wife and a diagnosis that was never officially made.
“My wife would comment that probably because I’m moderately autistic. It’s a big part of it,” Askren said.
He went on to explain that his wife had long joked about him having Asperger’s, a diagnosis that has since been folded into the broader autism spectrum disorder classification. Askren was initially dismissive, but that changed quickly.
“She used to joke that I had Askrenperger’s because when you look, there was like 10 key components of Asperger’s, and when she first brought it up, I’m like, ‘Whatever, get lost.’ And then when she read me the 10, I’m like, ‘Ah, s**t.’ Like I’m checking the box on nine of those ones, very for sure,” Askren said.
He has never received an official diagnosis, but Askren has accepted the idea and said it has helped him understand himself better. He pointed to one specific trait, a tendency toward rapid problem-solving, as something he has actively worked to manage in how it affects those around him.
“I’m really quick with problem solving and so sometimes I get to a problem’s answer and then I can kind of be like a little bit of a d**k to other people about it, and my wife maybe recognized that. So now I try to resolve that,” he said.
Far from viewing life on the spectrum as a limitation, Askren sees it as something that may have contributed to his success as an athlete. He noted that traits commonly associated with Asperger’s, such as intense focus on specific interests and the capacity to repeat tasks without losing motivation, align closely with what high-level competitors require.
“I think as I look through life through that lens, most high-level performers have probably something on the spectrum, right? Because there’s a lot with specified interest and the ability to go through repetition and not get bored by it,” Askren said.
He also credited his indifference to outside opinions with shaping his unconventional wrestling style, saying that tuning out social cues allowed him to develop an approach others would have abandoned under pressure from critics.
