Masvidal and Askren Revisit the 5-Second Knee That Changed Both Careers

Six years after Jorge Masvidal launched himself across the cage and ended Ben Askren in five seconds at UFC 239 in July 2019, the two men sat down and took the whole thing apart. Askren came on Masvidal's Death Row MMA podcast, and what came out wasn't a victory lap — it was a fighter breaking down exactly how he got caught, and another explaining how he engineered it.

The numbers frame why this one still matters. Askren walked in 21-0, a two-time NCAA Division-I freestyle champion who'd never lost an MMA bout, let alone been knocked cold. He'd collected belts in Bellator and ONE on the back of a grappling style that simply smothered people. Then came a flying knee that flattened him in the time it takes to tie a shoe, and he fought just once more before retiring.

Why Askren Never Saw It

Askren's explanation is almost clinical. He said he'd never been especially worried about flying knees because they usually come straight up and tight — predictable. Masvidal's version arrived on a jumping, forward trajectory Askren said he'd simply never seen anyone throw. His brain, he admitted, builds prediction patterns, and this one didn't fit any of them. By the time it registered, it was over.

Masvidal insists it wasn't luck. He said he studied Askren's tape obsessively, noting that whenever Askren hit a range he didn't like, he'd crash forward and look for the clinch, the underhook, the single leg — the positions he'd lived in 300,000 times. Masvidal's whole plan was to avoid getting dragged into that fight at all costs.

So he baited it. Masvidal said he wanted to close distance and make Askren feel he was in punching range, knowing Askren loved to crash in and change levels. Launch forward like he's loading up a strike, trigger the takedown instinct, and meet the drop with a knee. It was less a highlight attempt than a change-of-pace deterrent that happened to land flush.

Askren more or less confirmed the read. He said that in-fight thinking has to be instant — too slow and you're beaten — so when he saw Masvidal closing, his instinct fired: he's near, drop, takedown. He'd never watched the flying knee, so there was nothing to override the reflex. That gap is the entire fight.

For Masvidal, the knockout flipped his career from respected journeyman to genuine star, leading to two UFC title opportunities. For Askren, it was the beginning of the end. Both men now talk about it as a perfect storm — the rare finish where the hunter and the hunted agree on exactly what went wrong.