Ben Askren responds to claims his KO defeat by Jake Paul was fixed

Ben Askren has denied his defeat by Jake Paul was fixed.

Askren was stopped inside two minutes of the first round of his professional debut against the YouTube star.

Footage then emerged of the former mixed martial artist laughing with his wife as he walked back to his dressing room.

That prompted fans to complain they had been scammed and that the fight was fixed.

But Askren told ESPN : "That's human nature [to question the fight] but it definitely didn't happen, I got hit.

"I guess the question I have for people is what do I gain from it? I told you guys what I made for this fight, it was a very nice pay cheque but I'm also not destitute and poor, so what do I gain by that? The answer is nothing.

"I think in fact I would lose a lot and it's not something that would ever cross my mind.

"I said if they guy's a good boxer then I'm going to lose. There was a fear he had around me and there was a feeling that maybe he wasn't very good.

"In the locker room I was pretty confident I was going to win but… the result afterwards is irrelevant to me, my life is going to be the same either way."

Askren made a guaranteed $500,000 from the fight plus his share of the pay-per-view revenue which Paul claims is $65million.

And he added: "I thought about this, and it's utterly depressing, I made more in the Jake Paul fight, just on my base purse, than all of my fight purses in Bellator combined, that's nine wins."

Askren also insisted he was now fully retired having made a comeback to fight Paul following hip surgery last year.

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