Ben Askren: Pneumonia, Lung Transplant, and Comeback

Jorge Masvidal’s flying knee knocked Ben Askren out in five seconds. Six years later, Askren was in an intensive care unit with severe pneumonia and a lung transplant evaluation underway.

Birth date: July 18, 1984 · MMA record: 19-2-0 · UFC record: 1-2 (1 NC) · Height: 5’10” (177.8 cm) · Nickname: Funky

Ten data points, one pattern: the numbers that defined Askren’s career were set before the health crisis, and the health crisis rewrote everything else.

What happened to Ben Askren and how?

Askren’s story is a before-and-after in two acts: a wrestling and MMA career that peaked before the UFC, and a medical crisis that began after it ended.

Ben Askren’s early career in wrestling and MMA

• Two-time NCAA wrestling champion and 2008 Olympian (ESPN’s report)
• Former Bellator and ONE welterweight champion (Sportsnet’s report)

Askren built his name on the mat before he ever entered the UFC. The NCAA titles and the Olympic appearance came first; the Bellator and ONE championship belts followed. By the time the UFC came calling in 2019, he was already a proven champion in two organizations.

The implication: Askren won championships in every promotion he joined before the UFC — and the winning streak stopped there.

His move to the UFC

• Joined the UFC in 2019 (ESPN’s report)
• Lost to Jorge Masvidal via flying knee in 5 seconds (ESPN’s report)
• Lost to Demian Maia by submission and retired the same year (The Independent’s report)
• UFC record closed at 1-2 with one no contest (MMA Junkie’s report)

The UFC stint lasted three fights. Askren’s one win and two losses meant the promotion never saw the version of him that had dominated Bellator and ONE — and the Masvidal knockout made sure the public memory of him was five seconds long.

What this means: Askren’s entire UFC chapter was three fights and one viral moment — a thin record next to the championship résumé he brought with him.

The viral knockout by Jorge Masvidal

• The flying knee ended the fight in 5 seconds (ESPN’s report)

The clip did more than end the fight. It became the defining image of Askren’s UFC run — a flying knee, a knockout, and a replay that followed him into retirement.

The irony: Askren spent a decade building a championship résumé, but the public record of his UFC years begins with that five-second knockout.

Retirement and subsequent health issues

• Retired in 2019 after a submission loss to Demian Maia (The Independent’s report)
• Hospitalized with severe pneumonia in June 2025 (Sportsnet’s report)
• Underwent a double lung transplant in 2025 (The Independent’s report)

Askren retired at the end of 2019, and the public career went quiet. Then, in June 2025, his wife Amy posted that he was in the hospital with severe pneumonia and might need a lung transplant (Sporting News coverage). The sequence that followed — ventilator, ECMO, transplant, discharge — had no precedent in his fighting career.

Why did Ben Askren quit the UFC?

The short answer: he stopped wanting to fight. The longer answer involves a submission loss, a 35-year-old body, and a record that told him the UFC run had run its course.

The loss to Demian Maia

• Lost to Demian Maia by submission in 2019 (MMA Junkie’s report)
• The loss dropped his UFC record to 1-2 (The Independent’s report)

The Maia fight was Askren’s third UFC appearance. The first had been a win; the second was the Masvidal knockout; the third ended in a submission loss. There was no fourth fight.

For a fighter used to winning titles in Bellator and ONE, two UFC losses in three fights changed the calculation.

Age and decline in motivation

• Askren was 35 when he retired (MMA Junkie’s report)
• He cited a lack of interest in continuing (MMA Junkie’s report)

Age does not explain every retirement, but it explains Askren’s. He has said the desire to compete was no longer there, and he saw no reason to continue.

At 35, with two losses in three UFC fights, that calculation was easy to make.

Announcement of retirement

• Retirement announced in 2019 (The Independent’s report)
• Career MMA record: 19-2-0 (ESPN’s report)

The announcement was quiet, in keeping with the man. Askren closed his career at 19-2-0, with the two losses coming in his final two UFC fights.

The pattern: Askren left the UFC because the motivation was gone; six years later, his body gave him a fight that no amount of motivation could have prepared him for.

Why is Ben Askren in the hospital?

The hospitalization that put Askren in the news is in the past, but the crisis defined 2025 for him. He was admitted in June 2025, placed on life support, and eventually discharged after a double lung transplant — and the public’s first glimpse of the crisis came from his wife.

Pneumonia diagnosis

• Hospitalized in early June 2025 with severe pneumonia (Sportsnet’s report)
• Illness developed after a staph infection (Sportsnet’s report)

Askren’s wife Amy posted that he was in the hospital with severe pneumonia and might need a lung transplant (Sporting News coverage). The post turned a private medical emergency into a public story almost immediately.

Hospitalization and treatment

• Ventilator and ECMO used during treatment (Sporting News coverage)
• Lung transplant evaluation begun while he was hospitalized (Sporting News coverage)
• Reportedly lost about 50 pounds during the illness (Fortune’s reporting)

Ventilators help patients breathe; ECMO does the oxygen exchange when lungs cannot. Their use in Askren’s case signaled how far the pneumonia had progressed, and the reported 50-pound weight loss underscored the physical toll.

Both reports, taken together, point to lungs that were not recovering on their own.

Current status

• Underwent a double lung transplant in 2025 (The Independent’s report)
• Discharged from the hospital and shared a message of gratitude (The Independent’s report)
• Return match scheduled for RAF 11 on July 18, 2026 (MMA Junkie’s report)

Askren is alive, out of the hospital, and — by the evidence of his own schedule — far enough along to train for a wrestling match. The gap between the ICU reports of June 2025 and a July 2026 return date is the most concrete measure of his recovery.

What caused Ben Askren to develop pneumonia?

The public record does not contain a complete answer — only a sequence of events.

Possible causes: infection and immune response

• Reported sequence: staph infection first, pneumonia second (Sportsnet’s report)
• Exact cause not publicly confirmed (Sporting News coverage)

The simplest reading of the reporting is that Askren’s pneumonia followed a staph infection. How the infection reached his lungs, and why it became severe enough for life support, has not been explained in detail by any public source.

Links to Askren’s previous health history

• No earlier lung condition described in the reporting (The Independent’s report)
• Fighting career ended in 2019, years before the hospitalization (ESPN’s report)

Askren’s medical history beyond this episode is not public. The reporting shows a man healthy enough to retire on his own terms in 2019 and ill enough by 2025 to need a transplant evaluation.

What this means: the timeline makes the pneumonia look sudden, not chronic — there was no long public record of lung problems before June 2025.

What medical reports say

• Reports described severe pneumonia and a transplant evaluation (Sporting News coverage)
• Transplant cost reported at up to about $2 million (Fortune’s reporting)

The reported figures frame the severity: about 50 pounds lost, an evaluation for a double lung transplant, and a cost that Fortune reported at up to about $2 million.

The catch: without a confirmed cause, the medical lesson from Askren’s case is blunt — an infection can become life-threatening faster than anyone expects, even for a former elite athlete.

Why did Ben Askren insurance deny lung transplants?

The simpler question is the one the reporting actually answers: the insurance did not cover the transplant, and the gap was filled by a donor.

Health insurance denial

• Reports said insurance would not cover the transplant (EssentiallySports’ report)
• A July 2025 report said a donor paid after the denial (Sports Illustrated’s report)

The insurance issue surfaced while Askren was still in the hospital. EssentiallySports described a friend making a desperate plea as insurance failed to cover the lung transplant; Sports Illustrated later reported that a donor had stepped in. The exact sequence — denial, appeal, donor — has not been fully documented.

Taken together, the reports show a coverage gap that was real enough to delay or threaten the transplant, and a resolution that came from outside the insurance system.

Reasons for denial

• The insurer’s detailed reasoning has not been made public (EssentiallySports’ report)
• Documented outcome: denial, family’s public response, and a donor (Sports Illustrated’s report)

Without the insurer’s internal decision, the public only sees the outcome: the transplant was needed, the coverage was not there, and a donor filled the gap.

That is what turned the case into a public argument about transplant access.

Askren’s response and the public fight

• Amy Askren posted public updates during the hospitalization (Sporting News coverage)
• Askren posted a message of gratitude after discharge (The Independent’s report)
• Jake Paul said he would help cover the bills — and said insurance companies and Dana White were not stepping in (Fortune’s reporting)

Jake Paul’s press-conference comments added a celebrity layer to the insurance dispute: he would help, he said, while insurers and Dana White would not. The question of who should pay for a denied transplant was already public; Paul’s remarks made it louder.

Ben Askren timeline: career, health crisis, and return

Seven milestones, one pattern: Askren reached the top of every sport he tried, and the hardest fight came after he stopped competing.

What this means: the career milestones span more than a decade; the health crisis compressed into a single year — and it nearly erased all of it.

What’s confirmed and what’s unclear

Confirmed facts

• Ben Askren is alive, was discharged from the hospital, and has a return match scheduled (The Independent’s report; MMA Junkie’s report)
• He retired from the UFC in 2019 (The Independent’s report)
• He was hospitalized in June 2025 with severe pneumonia after a staph infection (Sportsnet’s report)
• He underwent a double lung transplant in 2025 (The Independent’s report)
• Jake Paul publicly said he would help cover medical bills (Fortune’s reporting)

What’s unclear

• Exactly what caused the pneumonia (Sporting News coverage)
• Whether the insurance denial was reversed, and how the donor payment was arranged (Sports Illustrated’s report)
• Whether a specific $500,000 payment from Jake Paul was made (Fortune’s reporting)
• Whether Dana White contributed anything to the medical costs (Fortune’s reporting)
• Whether the exact transplant cost reached $2 million; Fortune reported it as an upper-bound estimate (Fortune’s reporting)
• No verified report connects a $700 million offer to Mike Tyson with Askren’s story; the figure appears to be an unconfirmed rumor

The split is telling: what’s confirmed is the medical outcome; what’s unclear is almost entirely about money and causation.