{"id":471864,"date":"2026-06-02T06:02:31","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T06:02:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/471864\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T06:02:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T06:02:31","slug":"ben-askren-to-wrestle-belal-muhammad-one-year-after-life-saving-double-lung-transplant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/471864\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Askren to wrestle Belal Muhammad one year after life-saving double-lung transplant"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost exactly one year after receiving a life-saving double-lung transplant<\/a> that left him struggling to speak, former NCAA champion wrestler Ben Askren is returning to the mat.<\/p>\n

And he\u2019s going to compete on his 42nd birthday.<\/p>\n

Askren is scheduled to wrestle former UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad for Real American Freestyle in Milwaukee on July 18.<\/p>\n

An NCAA Division I wrestling champion at 174 pounds in 2006 and 2007, Askren was the first person RAF signed when the freestyle wrestling promotion formed in May 2025. Weeks later, he contracted a severe case of pneumonia that landed him in the hospital for more than a month.<\/p>\n

Askren said he \u201cdied four times\u201d during his 45-day hospital stay, much of which he spent in a medically induced coma. He learned of the details by reading his wife\u2019s journal and said the illness gave him a new perspective on life and his loved ones.<\/p>\n

Since then, Askren has regained his ability to walk and his voice, becoming a commentator and matchmaker for RAF. He regularly posts clips of himself training and teaching his wrestling school students in Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

Askren left the hospital in July 2025 weighing 147 pounds. He\u2019ll enter the cruiserweight match with Muhammad between 165 and 175 pounds.<\/p>\n

After the RAF11 bout with Muhammad, Askren plans to retire, regardless of the outcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know I can\u2019t compete with some of the high-level wrestlers at this point in my life, but I feel like I can still compete against some really good ones,\u201d Askren said in an interview<\/a> with Ariel Helwani on Monday. \u201cI\u2019m going to do it once, and I\u2019m going to enjoy it. Then I\u2019m going to coach wrestling, enjoy my family and help RAF grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Askren had a decorated collegiate wrestling career at the University of Missouri that placed him among the sport\u2019s greats. His 91 pins rank third in NCAA Division I history, and he finished with a 153-8 collegiate record, including an 87-match winning streak.<\/p>\n

He twice won the Dan Hodge Trophy as the nation\u2019s best college wrestler, an award equivalent to football\u2019s Heisman Trophy. Askren also competed with the 2008 U.S. Olympic team in Beijing before moving into mixed martial arts.<\/p>\n

After the transition, Askren won the Bellator Welterweight Championship in 2010 and the ONE Welterweight Championship in 2013. He briefly joined the UFC in 2018 and went 1-2 in the promotion before retiring the next year. His overall MMA record is 19-2.<\/p>\n

Nicknamed \u201cFunky,\u201d Askren continued to participate in occasional wrestling matches and grappling events, then competed in his first professional boxing match against Jake Paul in 2021. Paul won the pay-per-view main event matchup via technical knockout.<\/p>\n

Muhammad is a seasoned fighter whom the UFC still ranks as the world\u2019s fifth-best welterweight. The 37-year-old became UFC\u2019s first Palestinian champion at UFC 304 in July 2024 before losing the welterweight belt to Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 315 in May 2025. He has a 30-5 record in MMA across multiple promotions, leaning on his background in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. After suffering back-to-back losses in the octagon, Muhammad is set to face Gabriel Bonfim in the main event of UFC Fight Night 278 on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n A top UFC welterweight, Belal Muhammad is still trying to find his footing in freestyle wrestling. (Minas Panagiotakis \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The showdown with Askren will be Muhammad\u2019s second freestyle wrestling match. He made his professional debut in the sport at RAF04 on Dec. 20, 2025, when he lost to current welterweight champion David Carr.<\/p>\n

RAF11 is scheduled for July 18 at 8 p.m. ET, with coverage on Fox Nation.<\/p>\n

Outside of wrestling, Askren recently weighed in on last month\u2019s death of NASCAR driver Kyle Busch, who died of sepsis related to his own severe case of pneumonia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank god my wife forced me to go to the hospital when she did or my fate would\u2019ve likely been similar. It\u2019s scary stuff,\u201d Askren wrote on X<\/a> after Busch\u2019s cause of death was announced.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is literally what happened to me,\u201d he continued<\/a> in another post. \u201cI had zero breathing issues until the morning I was admitted to the hospital. Only symptoms days before was back pain. I went to the hospital the day before I was admitted and all vitals tested normal, besides back pain I felt fine and even had a good workout.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Almost exactly one year after receiving a life-saving double-lung transplant that left him struggling to speak, former NCAA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,37579,105],"class_list":["post-471864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-mixed-martial-arts","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}