There were high hopes and expectations placed on the shoulders of Ben Askren ahead of finally making his debut in the UFC back in March of this year. For a long time, his fans and many supporters within the world of MMA had called for Dana White to sign him up for the biggest organization in the sport, after such impressive success at Bellator and ONE Championship.
Askren had become the world champion in both of those aforementioned organizations at welterweight and before that he was a high-profile Olympic wrestler. The now 35-year-old eventually made his maiden octagon outing back in March in the UFC, as he collided with long-standing and experienced veteran Robbie Lawler.
He came out on top in controversial fashion, earning a technical submission victory inside the first round via a bulldog choke. A lot of fuss was made around the actual stoppage but Askren had his debut triumph and moved on to a clash with Jorge Masvidal in July.
But his fortunes were quickly over in this one as his second bout ended in a record five seconds, as he was crushed inside the opening moment of the fight by a brutal flying knee. Following that five-second defeat at the hands of Masvidal, who will next go on to do battle with UFC legend Nate Diaz, Askren is now aiming to get back on track and return to winning ways against fellow grappler Demian Maia.
Askren will take to the octagon as the -170 favorite in the latest UFC odds for this upcoming event in Singapore, while Maia is regarded as a +140 underdog in what will be an interesting battle of elite grapplers. Following his first-ever career loss, Askren will be hopeful of earning another victory here in a much more promising match-up for him. This is set to be a meeting of two elite level wrestlers at UFC Fight Night 162 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
Askren is an Olympic wrestler and he faces Maia, a true Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace. Maia is regarded as one of the greatest ever ground tacticians in the cage, having scored 13 submission wins in his MMA career against the likes of Carlos Condit, Chael Sonnen and Matt Brown.
While the Brazilian is known for his ground game, he has improved his striking in recent times but this still looks set to be a tactical clash on the octagon floor. Meanwhile, Askren holds as many knockout victories as he does submissions, boasting TKO triumphs over all of Shinya Aoki, Zebaztian Kadestam, Nobutatsu Suzuki, Andrey Koreshkov, Karl Amoussou and Josh Flowers. The American is no stranger to overcoming adversity and he will be confident of regaining success after a first-ever career defeat in his latest fight.
Winning his first 19 straight MMA bouts, Askren found himself at the summit of the game and was tipped for huge success upon his UFC arrival. But that five-second demolition has forced him to rethink things and it will be interesting to see how he can recover with this highly intriguing battle with Maia in Singapore.
0 comments: