The Olympian and former MMA champion is acclimating to a new normal since overcoming the summer health scare that nearly took his life.
Former MMA champion Ben Askren is acclimating to a new normal since overcoming the summer health scare that nearly took his life and resulted in a harrowing double lung transplant.
In July, the 41-year-old wrestling legend reemerged following an extended hospital stay that began in late May and resulted in Askren being medically sedated for more than a month. A noticeably gaunt Askren spoke emotionally of the health battle he'd gone through and how what he labeled as "severe pneumonia" had nearly killed him multiple times prior to the life-saving double transplant.
But against all odds, Askren pulled through. The former UFC contender was released from the hospital on July 22, and on Monday's edition of "The Ariel Helwani Show," a significantly healthier looking Askren — though still very much on the mend — peeled back the curtain on his transformative saga.
"I have obviously gained weight," Askren told Uncrowned. "The lowest weight I had was 138 [pounds], I'm probably 25 or so heavier than that now. Putting weight on has been difficult. At first, all the food tasted like s***. Then even after it stopped tasting like s***, I thought it was going to, so I didn't want it. Just dealing with issues like that. Food is finally starting to look good and taste good, so it's much easier to put on weight."
Askren said doctors addressed his health issues as "necrotizing pneumonia," a rare but severe version of the illness that destroys the lungs. The typical effects of the illness weren't even where it started, though. Askren explained that he initially began to feel some discomfort earlier this year in a spot on the right side of his lower back, and dismissed it as nothing more than a back spasm. That was nothing abnormal — he'd had five or so throughout his career as a competitor in various combat sports, he said.
At a pool party in the early summer, Askren recalled his back starting to flare up with pain, which led him to seek chiropractic care. That helped for a little while, and actually reaffirmed to the former champion that he did, in fact, have a back spasm — on top of the more serious condition. Askren and his wife, Amy, then flew out to Las Vegas for a Bitcoin conference in late May, where the pain grew too severe to ignore.
He went to the hospital on May 30 and stocked up on medicine, but one day later, things only worsened.
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"I was in really rough shape. I went to the hospital — I remember walking in, I don't remember anything else," Askren said.
"I'm stubborn. I always think I'm OK, and honestly, for the rest of my life, that worked out pretty damn well for me. But I actually didn't fight [going to the hospital in Las Vegas] that hard. Subconsciously, maybe I knew something was wrong and I didn't want to admit it. Because if I want to fight something hard enough, I'm just not going to do it. That happens a lot of times in my life. So I think maybe subconsciously I did know something was wrong, and I just didn't want to admit to it, and I was really excited about a lot of the speakers at the Bitcoin conference, and I can deal with pain.
"If [Amy] wasn't there, I don't know that I would have went. I probably would've had to pass out or something first."
In addition to the back pain Askren felt, he'd also been dealing with a staph infection on his elbow. His best efforts weren't enough, he said, and that's what caused the necrotizing pneumonia.
"In my experience prior to this, you don't need antibiotics for every staph," Askren said. "I showered real well, I cleaned it, used some anti-bacterial and all that kind of stuff, and it went away. Then, a few days later, it clears up, it looks all healed — but they say it somehow got into my bloodstream. I'm not a doctor, I don't know how that works. From the bloodstream, it somehow got into the lungs, then it's eating my lungs. That's kind of the long and short of it.
"In the beginning they thought they could do heavy doses of antibiotics, [but] it just kept getting worse and worse and worse. Essentially, I was on a whole bunch of machines to keep me alive. Then they realized the only way I was going to stay alive was if I got a lung transplant. So when I woke up, I had two new lungs."
Askren's wife provided several updates throughout the process and managed everything related to him to ensure a successful transplant surgery. It didn't come without several scares, though.
Askren noted being told that his heart stopped multiple times during his period of incapacitation, sometimes for as long as 20 seconds. Askren was unconscious throughout his time in the hospital until after his double lung transplant, which he assumes took a long time, though he isn't aware of its exact length.
"They said they had to scrape my previous lungs out of my chest cavity, which sounds awful," he said. "They cut me straight across [the chest] and they just open it up, which sounds awful."
A former Bellator and ONE Championship champion, Askren retired from MMA in 2019 after a three-fight run in the UFC. "Funky" was undefeated and widely regarded as one of the best wrestlers to ever lace up a pair of four-ounce gloves prior to his arrival in the promotion the same year. Although his first career loss against Jorge Masvidal was historically devastating — a five-second flying-knee sequence that remains the quickest knockout in UFC history — Askren handled it in stride in the immediate aftermath.
An MMA comeback was never necessarily in the cards for Askren — a much-needed hip surgery in 2020 ensured that — but he had been training and teaching wrestling before his illness. He was in good enough condition that he was scheduled to participate in Real American Freestyle's debut show on Aug. 30.
Unfortunately, Askren expects that he's already experienced his last chance to compete in any capacity.
"I was really excited to wrestle, and now it's sad because I'll probably never get to wrestle again," Askren said. "They didn't say no for sure, but it's probably unlikely, I would guess."
Askren's road to a full recovery is expected to be a long one, and one he doesn't expect to ever lead back to the life he had prior. He noted never taking medicine regularly beforehand, and now having to take almost 40 pills per day. That number may decrease over time, he said, but it'll never return back to zero.
Though he is able to walk again and engage in more regular life activities nearly two months after his surgery, Askren is still limited. He said he can't be very active and physically notices getting winded more easily. He's not even supposed to be around people for long periods of time, he said, as the risk of infection with lung transplants is especially high. In his free time, Askren said he's stayed busy by reading books and rekindling his baseball fandom, watching the Milwaukee Brewers' run to the MLB playoffs with his children.
In truth, none would fault the one-time Olympian for being down in the dumps with the way his life has changed in 2025, and he admits to having low points over the past several months. Yet Askren's overall outlook has remained remarkably positive and forward-looking. It's just how he's always been, he said.
"I got some issue where I can only think forward," he said. "Man, even in this whole time, it's been 12 weeks since the surgery, so probably a little less than 12 weeks since I was conscious in that sense, but I haven't dwelled on it at all. Some days, when I really feel like s***, I'm like, 'Ah man, I wish I didn't feel like this today. I wish I could do this or do that,' and I have to realize I can't do that today. I need to freaking rest because I feel terrible. Then they say if you push it too far it will cause complications.
"I haven't looked backward all that much. It's just like, 'OK, here's where I am, and I've got to work from this point.' And one of the things I always stress to my wrestlers is — and maybe I've done it so much I've brainwashed myself — is that anxiety and stress in people is generally caused by thinking about things they cannot control. So you focus on what you can control. ... What happened in the past is not in my control. I can't do anything about it. Do I wish it was different? Of course I do."
Category: General Sports
