Ben Askren is one of the most intimidating wrestlers of all time in the Octagon. As it turns out he’s also a self promoted black belt?!

There’s long been rumors about this that originated on a Chael Sonnen podcast but now there’s a confirmation from the source himself.

When asked:

“Was Chaels story about your black belt true? He said you essentially just declared yourself a black belt and challenged people to prove you don’t have the skills to be one.”

Askren responded simply:

“Yes.”

And as for if anyone tried to call him on it – don’t hold your breath!

Askren was recently a guest on the Joe Rogan Podcast where he criticised the training methods of BJJ schools and what he sees as a lack of drilling.

He also talked about the lack of sense of doing 5 minute rounds in BJJ:

“We know, without a shadow of a doubt (that) just saying ‘go for five minutes’ is not the most effective way to train someone,” Askren said.

“If I’m coaching at my academy, and we were drilling the front headlock, we don’t just say ‘OK, now go five-minute goes’ because how many tries are they gonna get at going at the front headlock position?” Askren said. “Maybe one, maybe two, but essentially most people, if you say ‘go for five minutes’, they’re not disciplined enough to make themselves do new skills. They revert to whatever they do best. And then they just do it over and over and over again.”

“If I want a kid to be good at a front headlock – which if you’re gonna wrestle at a high level, you need a good front headlock – I’m gonna put him in there 50 times in that practice,” he added. “He’s gonna get it over and over and over, and maybe the next day, it’s single-legs, and maybe the next day it’s double-legs. And maybe some days, you say ‘hey, go for ten minutes, go wrestle.’”

“But saying ‘go for five minutes’ every single day is very much not the most effective way to do it, and it’s so insanely frustrating for me to have that happen at almost every jiu-jitsu school in the planet.”