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Ben Askren looks back at KO loss vs. Jorge Masvidal | Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show

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Ben Askren has no memory of the five seconds that ended his unbeaten run.

Two days after Jorge Masvidal knocked him out with a flying knee at UFC 239, Ben Askren sat down with Ariel Helwani on his MMA Show to talk through the first loss of his professional career. The finish, which happened in five seconds flat, set the UFC record for the fastest knockout in company history. Askren, never one to duck a question, showed up ready to explain what he remembers, what he watched back, and what comes next.

• Masvidal’s flying knee set the UFC record for the fastest knockout ever recorded, ending the bout at five seconds of round one.
• Askren told Helwani he has no memory of the knockout or its immediate aftermath, with his recollection picking back up once he was already in the hospital, though he passed all required medical checks.
• Askren said he’d likely have earned a title shot against Kamaru Usman with a win, but doubts Masvidal gets one despite the highlight-reel finish.

Five Seconds That Erased a Career-Long Streak

Askren walked into UFC 239 unbeaten across his entire professional MMA career, a streak he’d built in Bellator and ONE Championship before jumping to the UFC. Masvidal ended all of it before most fans had even settled into their seats, closing the distance at the opening bell and landing a flying knee flush on Askren’s chin. Officials waved it off at the five-second mark, and the number instantly became the new UFC record for the quickest finish in the promotion’s history.

Sitting across from Helwani, Askren didn’t hide from the moment or try to spin it. He acknowledged straight up that he’d bet his undefeated record and his reputation on the trash talk he’d thrown Masvidal’s way in the lead-up to the fight, and that the bet didn’t pay off. It’s the kind of blunt self-assessment that’s rare in combat sports media, and it’s part of why his stop on Helwani’s show — a program built around exactly this sort of unfiltered candid sit-down — carried weight beyond the usual post-fight recap.

A Blackout Askren Can’t Fill In

The most striking detail Askren shared wasn’t about strategy or regret — it was about memory. He told Helwani his recollection of the fight cuts off shortly before the opening bell and doesn’t pick back up until he was already in the hospital. Everything in between, including the knee itself and whatever happened in the immediate aftermath inside the Octagon, is simply gone.

Askren was clear that physically he came out fine, saying he passed every medical check required of him. What he hasn’t been able to do is reconstruct the moment from his own memory, so he’s relied on the replay like everyone else watching at home.

Askren said he’s watched the finish back and can see exactly how Masvidal read him — the flying knee was built to punish his instinct to duck and shoot for a takedown.

The Instinct That Got Exploited

That instinct — dropping his head level and shooting forward — is the foundation of Askren’s entire wrestling-based game plan, the same approach that made him a two-time NCAA champion and a dominant grappler across Bellator and ONE Championship. Masvidal clearly scouted it, sprinting the length of the cage and timing the knee for the exact split-second Askren’s habits would have brought his chin into range. Askren didn’t dispute any of it once he saw the tape; he called it what it was, a finish that used his own tendencies against him.

None of that softened the blow to his ego. Askren had entered the build-up to UFC 239 as one of the sport’s loudest talkers, and losing in the manner he did, on the biggest stage available, was as public a humbling as MMA offers. Still, he stayed upfront with Helwani rather than deflecting, which is consistent with how he’s handled himself in interviews and on social media throughout his run in the sport.

Current Welterweight Title Picture Status

Askren told Helwani he believed a win over Masvidal at UFC 239 would have put him next in line for a shot at welterweight champion Kamaru Usman. That path is gone now, but Askren doesn’t think Masvidal walks into a title fight off the back of the flying knee either, despite how much attention the finish generated. In his view, the win was spectacular, but it wasn’t the kind of resume-building performance that typically earns an immediate crack at Usman’s belt.

What Askren was firm about is that he’s not walking away. He told Helwani he plans to treat the loss as part of competing in the sport, regroup, and get back in the Octagon rather than let one five-second stretch define the rest of his career.