{"id":804815,"date":"2026-07-16T22:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T22:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/804815\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T22:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T22:09:08","slug":"raf-drops-inspiring-ben-askren-return-promo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/804815\/","title":{"rendered":"RAF Drops Inspiring Ben Askren Return Promo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighter and two-time NCAA Division I national champion Ben Askren is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ncaa-wrestling-news-and-results\/447650\/funky-time-ben-askren-returns-to-wrestling-takes-on-belal-muhammad-at-raf-11\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">returning to the wrestling mats this weekend<\/a> (Sat., July 18, 2026) against former UFC Welterweight champion Belal Muhammad at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/raf-wrestling-schedule-cards-live-results\/457033\/finalized-raf-11-card-start-time-date-and-location-arman-vs-covington\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">RAF 11<\/a>, which goes down inside UWM Panther Arena in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">RAF released a new promo ahead of Askren\u2019s \u201castonishing return\u201d to wrestling, and, yeah, it is pretty hard not to get emotional watching it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cFunky\u201d was hospitalized a year ago with a severe case of pneumonia that developed as a result of a staph infection. Askren later revealed that he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/2025\/7\/9\/24464745\/video-emotional-ben-askren-shares-first-update-from-hospital-bed-i-died-four-times\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">nearly died four times<\/a> before eventually receiving a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/2025\/6\/24\/24455222\/ben-askren-update-funky-ufc-vet-added-to-lung-transplant-list-thankful-his-mind-is-healthy\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">double lung transplant surgery<\/a> that ultimately saved his life \u2014 however, literally less than a year ago, he was still in the hospital.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Less than one year ago, Askren was still in a hospital bed fighting for his life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Now, he is preparing to wrestle in front of his home-state crowd in Milwaukee.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">That is legitimately insane.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">But considering everything he has been through, even making the walk is a victory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">For much more on RAF and wrestling news click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/raf-wrestling-schedule-cards-live-results\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighter and two-time NCAA Division I national champion Ben Askren is returning to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":804816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,355512,85,14855],"class_list":["post-804815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-real-american-freestyle-raf-wrestling","tag-sports","tag-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/804816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}