Ben Askren
Ben Askren ( born July 18, 1984 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa ) is an American mixed martial arts fighter who currently competes in the welterweight division of the Association of Bellator Fighting Championships. With Bellator he holds in this weight class currently on the World Champion title.
Askren entered earlier for the University of Missouri as a wrestler and was able to win the state championships twice.
In the NCAA, he lost the 2004 and 2005 championship fight in the weight category up to 174 lbs vs. Chris Pendleton, but they won in 2006 and 2007. In the Summer Olympics 2008, he joined the U.S. team in the weight class up to 74 kg. The first fight he won against István Veréb, but later lost against Cuban Iván Fundora.
Then he tried with streaky success in grappling and stepped in to the ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship.
7 February 2009 Askren started his MMA career. To date, he is unbeaten in seven fights (as of 31 October 2010) on 21 October 2010 and won the world title welterweight MMA organization Bellator.
Nicknamed the " Funky " Askren received by his unorthodox style of wrestling. There was no name for his style, so that people began to call his style " The Funk ".