Former UFC Fighter Hospitalized in Critical Condition After Sudden Illness
Former UFC Fighter Hospitalized in Critical Condition After Sudden Illness originally appeared on Men's Fitness.
Ben Askren has been hospitalized due to a serious illness.
On Saturday, June 7, Ben Askren's wife, Amy, shared in a Facebook post that Ben, 40, is in the hospital with severe pneumonia.
"You may have heard that my husband Ben is going through something. He developed severe pneumonia which came on very suddenly. He's currently in the hospital and unable to respond to anything at this time. We welcome all prayers for healing and for peace. We are trying to keep life as normal as possible for our children currently and doing our best to support them thoughtfully so please refrain from discussing it with them for now," Amy wrote in the post.
Wrestling insider Pat Mineo also took to social media, sharing Askren's condition.
"Wrestling community, we need to pray for and rally around @BenAskren who is in critical condition and battling a severe staph infection. He is also battling severe pneumonia, prayers needed!!!" Mineo wrote on X on Saturday night.
Askren's most recent Instagram post, shared just a week ago, has turned into a space for fans to send their thoughts and prayers, with many flooding the comments with heartfelt messages and prayer emojis.
"Fight back Ben! I pray that you heal quickly and return just fine! We are ALL in your corner man!!!!!!" one Instagram user wrote.
"Get well soon champ," another user wrote.
Askren had an impressive MMA career, racking up 12 straight wins and capturing welterweight titles in both Bellator MMA and ONE Championship. Known for his dominant wrestling and unorthodox style, Askren retired from the sport in 2019.
He briefly returned to competition in 2021 for a one-off boxing match against Jake Paul. Widely considered one of the greatest amateur wrestlers in U.S. history, Askren also represented Team USA in wrestling at the 2008 Olympics.Former UFC Fighter Hospitalized in Critical Condition After Sudden Illness first appeared on Men's Fitness on Jun 9, 2025
This story was originally reported by Men's Fitness on Jun 9, 2025, where it first appeared.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
2 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
S.F. Unicorns make long-awaited Bay Area cricket debut at Oakland Coliseum
Thursday opened with a five-hour drive from Pismo Beach to the Oakland Coliseum for Neville Smeda, a native of South Africa who was initially skeptical of how Major League Cricket would logistically pull off its Bay Area debut. Smeda made it through the gates of the former home of Athletics baseball with about an hour to spare, proudly decked out in green and gold. He was not repping the A's. The South Africa men's national cricket team, aka the Proteas, share the same colors. Smeda rushed up the steps of the Coliseum, a storied venue that had never welcomed the likes of cricket across its 59 years in existence, with one thing on his mind: Could a baseball diamond be adapted to the oval shape characteristic of an authentic cricket field? In the week leading up to the MLC season opener, a rematch of last year's finals between the San Francisco Unicorns and the reigning champion Washington Freedom, Smeda left the same comment on a number of the league's Instagram posts promoting cricket in the Coliseum: 'Is it oval?' He never received a response. But when the cricket purist saw the finished product for himself, he was more impressed than disappointed. The field on which the Unicorns bested the Freedom by a score of 269/5-146 — the largest margin of victory (123 runs) in MLC history — did not appear as a perfect oval. Close enough, conceded Smeda, who marveled at the fact that a crowd of 5,126 people showed up to watch a cricket match in California. 'I watched five games last year in Dallas, that was an OK crowd,' Smeda said of Grand Prairie Stadium, MLC's staple site in Texas. 'Maybe the most was about 1,000 people. 'This, I think, is incredible.' The sight was several years in the making. In 2022, MLC CEO Johnny Grave first identified the Coliseum as a potential forum for the 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup. The size of its playing surface, he said, was uniquely adaptable for cricket. The A's occupation at the time ultimately ruled the possibility moot. Bay Area cricket fans may have been the only people who actually applauded the A's move to Las Vegas, and Sacramento in the interim. 'In order for it to have real sporting and cricketing integrity, we needed to play in venues where the boundary size, the size of the playing surface, was akin to all the best cricket grounds in the world,' Grave told the Chronicle. 'The Coliseum is the only baseball ground in the U.S. that has that size of playing arena.' By the end of a seven-day stretch, nine MLC matches will be hosted in what was once the heart of Oakland sports, since abandoned by its marquee franchises. The Raiders left for Las Vegas in 2019, the same year the Warriors departed for San Francisco. And the A's are hosting a groundbreaking ceremony for their proposed ballpark in Sin City in less than two weeks. Sabi Lali, a Unicorns fan dating to their inception in 2023, was just grateful he could watch a pro cricket match in person again. Born and raised in India, home to the India Premier League, widely regarded as the best cricket league in the world, Lali has lived in the Bay Area for 15 years. The closest thing to live cricket he could find were community tennis-ball matches. Of course, he never stopped following his favorite IPL club, the Punjab Kings, as a native of the Punjab region. Most matches start around 7 a.m. PST, the start of a two-hour span when he shirks all fatherly responsibilities while his wife takes their two kids to school: 'I do not know my family during those two hours,' Lali joked. As soon as the Coliseum matches were announced, Lali purchased $200 worth of tickets to make a family field trip out of cricket's historic introduction to the West Coast. Because certain boundaries of the Coliseum's adapted cricket field were atypically narrow, sixes — the equivalent to home runs in baseball — soared into the stands at will. A whopping 19 sixes, the world record for modern T20 cricket (the sport's condensed three-hour format), were hit Thursday. As many fans had a chance to catch the game ball, albeit before throwing it back into the field of play, an unwritten rule of the sport. Smeda's piece of advice for folks used to catching baseballs with a mitt: 'Get out of the way.' A cricket ball is heavier and harder than a baseball, despite how easy world-class cricket players made it look to catch with their bare hands. One of the draws of MLC is how many top international talents the league has attracted. 'It's not just a slogan,' said Smeda, who especially lauded New Zealander Finn Allen, the Unicorns batsman who set a single-match league record for runs batted in (151) to avenge his team's championship loss to the Freedom a season ago. 'It was an amazing experience,' Allen said. 'We wanted to come out here, first time with Oakland, throw the first punch and put on a show.' Well before the final result of Thursday's match rang out over the stadium intercom to celebrate the local Unicorns as victors, cricket won. Smeda, who grew up playing cricket in South Africa from age 5, was in awe of the scene, marked by his beloved sport's uniquely diverse fan base all gathered in one place. The place in question being the Oakland Coliseum only sweetened the moment. It was proof of concept for what cricket, long renowned worldwide, could become in America — and especially in the East Bay, where diehard fans could finally emerge from obscurity Thursday. 'This is my happy space,' Smeda said. 'Cricket in America is one of those where you get nationalities from all over the world. I love to meet the Bangladeshi and the Pakistani and the Indian and the Sri Lankan and the Englishman and the Australian. I mean, there's just so much passion for it … which is one of the reasons I think (MLC) came to San Francisco because you have a very diverse population here.'
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Care home rated inadequate for second time by CQC
A care home in Kent has been rated inadequate by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for the second time. Hevercourt in Gravesend received the rating following an inspection in February which the CQC said found five breaches of legal regulations relating to safe care and treatment, safeguarding, staffing, recruitment and how the service was managed. In response to these findings, CQC imposed urgent conditions on the home to restrict them from taking on new residents without prior agreement from the watchdog. Hevercourt, which was also rated inadequate in a report published in September 2024, has been contacted for a comment. Inspectors found staff were supporting people with unsafe techniques, medicines were still not being managed or stored safely, people's care records and plans were not updated and lacked detail, and incident management and safeguarding systems were poor. The report also said staff were not always recruited safely and there were gaps in employment checks. Areas of the home - including people's bedrooms - remained difficult to keep clean and in need of updating, and the environment continued to be potentially disorienting for people with dementia. A new manager was in post since the last inspection, but the provider had not given them a clear induction or action plan, the CQC said. However, the watchdog added that staff reported the new manager had made some positive changes, such as acting quickly on a concern about a lack of equipment. Serena Coleman, CQC deputy director of operations in the south, said staff did not take action when people's health was at risk. "We also saw detail was missing from notes about what staff did when someone had choked on their food, and staff didn't support people who had wounds on their skin to regularly change positions to prevent further injury," she said. The deputy director said in the watchdog's previous inspection it found people were at risk of sexualised behaviour from other residents and this was still the case. Ms Coleman added: "During the inspection, we saw a 20-minute period where no staff were present in a room with six residents. "Incident reports showed 80% of falls happened during the night shift, but staffing levels hadn't been reviewed." The deputy leader said the care home had been told where "immediate and widespread" improvements were needed. The CQC explained that the home remained in special measures, meaning it was being closely monitored to ensure people were kept safe whilst improvements were made. Follow BBC Kent on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@ or WhatsApp us on 08081 002250. Care service provider rated inadequate by CQC Adult social care requires improvement - watchdog Care home and agency in special measures - CQC Hevercourt Care Quality Commission
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Pub popular with horse racing community closes
A village pub that was a popular place of celebration among the horse racing community has closed. The Hollow Bottom in the Cotswold village of Guiting Power lies about ten miles (16km) east of from Cheltenham Racecourse and was a popular spot for celebrating Gold Cup wins and yard successes. Jo Collinson, a groom who formerly worked for trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies, said the pub's atmosphere was "just as amazing as Gold Cup day itself" when Imperial Commander, who she looked after, brought home the trophy in 2010. A spokesperson for Young's, which owns the Hollow Bottom, said it was closing after "a careful review of our plans" before the lease ended. More news stories for Gloucestershire Listen to the latest news for Gloucestershire The Hollow Bottom previously closed in 2019 and was purchased and reopened by the Lucky Onion, a hospitality group owned by Julian Dunkerton, the founder of Superdry. Young's bought it in 2022. They announced that the pub was closing on Sunday. "We would like to thank the local community for their support over the last five years. We will be in contact directly with any customers who have future bookings with the pub." Now a groom for Jonjo O'Neill, Ms Collinson said "every Christmas party and many birthday celebrations" were spent at the Hollow Bottom when she worked for Twiston-Davies, who is based in nearby Naunton. Ms Collinson said she helped take three winning horses, including Imperial Commander down to the "absolutely heaving" Hollow Bottom on Gold Cup Day 2010. "There were people on the flat roof above the door, the cars couldn't get through on the road, it was amazing. "It was like leading him back in on the racecourse all over again... We piled down the Hollow Bottom to celebrate it for days." Ms Collinson said the pub was "wild" after every meet, regardless of the time of year. "A piece of my heart will always be at the Hollow Bottom, when we celebrated winners and had those Christmas parties there and had a lot of fun with the best friends," she said. "It was the best times and I'll never forget them." Follow BBC Gloucestershire on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to us on email or via WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630. Legendary trainer Peter Easterby dies aged 95 Horse racing track plan near Bannockburn site refused Horse racing trainer rides off in a new direction
