(With the news of Ben Askren signing with OneFC, here are two pieces that were written last week about Ben Askren’s situation as a free agent.)
The Case for Ben Askren as a UFC Fighter and 100 UFC Fighters he has a Better Resume Than
Contributor: Dan Galvan
If the UFC is interested in being known as the MMA organization that has the best mixed martial artists in the world, then it should sign Ben Askren.
If the UFC is interested in making a lot of money and putting on the most marketable fights possible, then it should sign Ben Askren.
Strictly from a sporting perspective, there is no free agent male fighter with a more impressive resume than Ben Askren. After a successful wrestling career as a national champion folkstyle wrestler at Mizzou and an Olympian in 2008, Ben Askren has established himself as a top ten welterweight by dominating all but one of his twelve opponents and winning the Bellator Welterweight Championship.
The last [and only] time Ben Askren was in a close contest was in a 2011 when he defended his championship against current UFC fighter Jay Hieron. Askren utilized his wrestling [a common theme in his career] to take the middle three periods of the fight, but he dropped the first and fifth to a well-conditioned Hieron who displayed stout takedown defense.
Since the Hieron fight, Askren has defended his championship three times against Douglas Lima, Karl Amoussou, and Andrey Koreshkov, and to say he defended his championship with dominance may actually be an understatement. In those three title defenses, Askren did not drop a single round, arguably won three of those periods with a 10-8 score, and finished both Amoussou and Koreshkov.
Now that Bjorn Rebney has granted Ben Askren a release from his Bellator contract, there is just not much more Ben Askren can do outside of the UFC to move himself up the “all important” fighter rankings.
One takeaway that I’ve heard from people about the Askren-to-the-UFC situation is that Ben Askren is a boring lay and pray wrestler, and that he wouldn’t be a smart acquisition from a business perspective. I couldn’t disagree any more with that sentiment.
Firstly, in Askren’s last three fights, he’s shown that he’s evolved from being a lay and pray wrestler. Sure, he still takes guys down and maintains a dominant position, but isn’t that one of the goals in Mixed Martial Arts competition? In his last three fights, Askren has shown that he’s not content with just scoring points from a top position. Instead, he’s constantly transitioned from position to position, attempted submissions, landed a steady diet of ground and pound highlighted by elbows that created cuts on the faces of Andrey Koreshkov and Karl Amoussou.
Secondly, even if the UFC marketing department is run by manatees, Ben Askren is a marketable fighter. What separates Ben Askren from fighters like Jon Fitch or Yushin Okami who are perceived to possess boring fighting styles, is that he has a personality, is a tremendous interview, and knows how to be entertaining.
When you compare the track record of Ben Askren with several other UFC fighters, it becomes a no brainer that Ben Askren’s next fight should take place in an octagon sponsored by Corn Nuts, and honestly, it’s difficult to wrap one’s head around the idea that Askren hasn’t earned a shot in comparison to some of his UFC peers.
To illustrate my point, I’ve compiled a list of one hundred fighter currently signed by the UFC [per the UFC website] that have weaker resumes than Ben Askren. This practice is not intended disparage these fighters or say that they aren’t deserving of a shot in the UFC, they absolutely are. This is just to showcase how asinine it is to not consider Ben Askren’s resume worthy of an opportunity in the UFC.
Here’s a list of 100 fighters with least impressive MMA resumes than Ben Askren.
(BW stands for biggest wins, and by resumes I am only talking about the wins and losses on paper, not necessarily a fighter’s perceived talent).
The Ben Askren Power Struggle
Contributor: Josh Hall
Over the past few years MMA has become a much more viable source of income for up and coming fighters, but some recent events have shown that the sport has a long way to go in the treatment of its participants. Since Strikeforce dissolved into the UFC, Bellator has taken over as the unquestioned #2 promotion in the business. While having a strong second promotion seems that it would be a good thing for fighters (increasing their market values through competition), but it has come with a nasty downside that leaves some fighters twisting in the wind at the whims of Bjorn Rebney and Dana White.
Where the UFC and SF were far from friends but had a somewhat amicable business relationship before the Zuffa buyout, the UFC and Bellator have engaged in a nasty feud that has only intensified since the purchase of Bellator by Viacom. In these promotional battles the fighters are the only leverage, and sometimes there can be some collateral damage. Enter the now former Bellator WW Champion.
Free agent Ben Askren recently announced that he would be joining up with Evolve MMA, one of the top camps in Asia, sparking rumors that he would be joining ONE FC, the top promotion in the Asian market.
Is ONE FC a step down from Bellator? Absolutely. Why would a 12-0 fighter that was the WW champion of the second best organization be going to a lower tier organization in a totally different market across the world? Sadly, this looks to be the best option available to him at the moment. He is a pawn that both Bjorn Rebney and Dana White have no problem sacrificing to further their ongoing feud, and it is sad to watch as a fan.
Askren is caught between a rock and a hard place at the moment, and it is completely out of his control. He wanted out of Bellator to test himself against the best in the world but he has instead has found himself in the exact opposite of a bidding war, with both companies passing on his services seemingly just to spite to each other.
Before I go into this any further, we need to back up and look at a quick refresher on what happens when fighters leave Bellator for the big show (or try). Things looked good for fighters when Hector Lombard left, as the UFC paid him a hefty to price to ensure that Bellator wouldn’t be able to match. He proved to be nothing more than a middle of the road MW in the UFC unfortunately, and this pretty well ensured the UFC wouldn’t throw huge sums out for Bellator stars in the future.
Eddie Alvarez got a much lower figure from the UFC when he attempted to cross over, and Bellator used some crafty legal maneuvers to technically match the contract by legal standards. This led to Alvarez spending a year of his prime on the sidelines in legal battles before eventually ending up stuck back in Bellator to fight on a PPV that never happened. He is now the Bellator LW champion again after defeating Michael Chandler in their rematch and no one knows when he may actually make his UFC debut.
Now we have Askren, who comes with the reputation of being a less than exciting fighter with some of the best wrestling in the sport. He was very open about wanting to challenge himself against the best, but he didn’t get the same hardball tactics from Bellator that Alvarez did. Rebney agreed to drop the matching clause altogether and Askren was released from the organization after there were unable to come to terms on a contract extension. The problem for “Funky” was that the UFC was not interested in his services either, and they had nothing kind to say about him. Dana White not only didn’t want his services, he talked up the WSOF like it would be an amazing career opportunity for him:
“There’s actual competition for him there,” White said. “I think it’s crazy that he’s ranked in the top 10. He hasn’t fought anybody and has no challenges. The best thing that could’ve ever happened to that kid was leaving Bellator. Now he has the opportunity to go to World Series of Fighting and show what he’s got.”
(http://mmajunkie.com/2013/11/ufc-presidents-suggestion-to-ben-askren-go-to-wsof/)
If the UFC wants to pass on his services they certainly have that right, but they have 72 welterweights on their roster at last count. Askren isn’t a guy who is past his prime, he has some of the best wrestling credentials in the world, and he has already dominated the #2 promotion in the sport. He is ranked in the top ten by most media outlets. Wins over Andrey Koreshkov, Karl Amoussou, Douglas Lima, Jay Hieron, and Nick Thompson is a decent list for a guy who “hasn’t fought anybody”. Normally a fighter would be moving forward to bigger challenge at this point, not going down to the #3 promotion. Also, the UFC never endorses any of their competitors like that. What’s the deal?
At the recent TUF finale, WSOF frontman Ray Sefo and matchmaker Ali Abdel-Aziz were in attendance compliments of Dana White according to Sefo’s Twitter account. There is clearly a friendly relationship between the two organizations and for someone like Ben Askren it leaves him between a rock and a hard place. He wants to be in the UFC, but after they have flat out turned him down he probably doesn’t want them dictating to him what organization he can fight in. He wants better than Bellator, and the current WSOF WW champion, Steve Carl, couldn’t make it to the finals of the Bellator WW tournament.
For the UFC, Askren going to the WSOF would be a win-win scenario. If he gets beat by a Jon Fitch or Josh Burkman then the best Bellator had to offer got beat by a guy the UFC threw away. If Askren goes in there and dominates against UFC retreads he will be a much easier product for the UFC to sell, and they will still have no one to bid against with Bellator out of the equation. The WSOF would gain more credibility and move closer to knocking Bellator out of the #2 spot in the MMA hierarchy. The UFC can’t lose in this scenario and Askren would not gain any further leverage.
There is nothing at all wrong with the UFC and the WSOF having a good relationship (It would especially be good for up and coming talent to have a more direct line to the UFC now that Bellator is proving to be anything but), but in this instance it leaves Askren cut out of the major US MMA scene if he doesn’t want to play ball with the UFC and go where they say. Only moments after the UFC decided they were not interested in signing him he received an offer from the WSOF, and he had to feel like a piece that was being moved around a game board.
His announcement of the move to Evolve MMA has triggered the rumors that he is ONE FC bound, and that would be the one other viable option that still gives him some control over his career. They also are his best option financially now that the UFC has washed their hands of the former Bellator champion. He won’t get the step up in competition that he wants there, but with the different rule set he may be able to get some finishes and improve his stock to get to the UFC down the road and make the best of a bad circumstance. With the UFC looking to expand more into Asia it would certainly be a good market to build a fanbase in as well.
This is one of those cases that remind us that MMA is not a meritocracy, and that promotion and entertainment value can sometimes outweigh skill level in regards to making it to the top of the sport. Askren is caught in the perfect storm of having a reputation as a boring fighter and being caught in the middle of the ongoing fight over contracts between the UFC and Bellator. If he was as dynamic as Eddie Alvarez or Michael Chandler the UFC would not pass on him due to the Bellator connection. If he had the same resume and built it anywhere else there is little doubt he would already be in the UFC. They signed Jared Rosholt who just debuted at The Ultimate Fighter finale, and he has similar wrestling credentials to Askren(including also having the “boring” label) but has had nowhere near the success in MMA.
It concerns me as a fan to see such a high level talent passed over because of the organization he fought in, and it disappoints me that he is being made an example out of by the top two promotions because his style isn’t aesthetically pleasing to many fans. Askren deserves the chance to fight the best in the world, and hopefully after a little time away from Bellator he can erase the stigma from his time there and can finally get that opportunity.
Only time will tell the long term effect all this will have on the career of Ben Askren, but his plans have been at least temporarily derailed without him ever losing a fight in the cage or getting injured. This may also have an impact down the road on how willing top wrestlers could be to enter MMA. If I was an elite wrestler and saw what is happening to Askren, it would make me think twice about a career getting punched in the face where winning may not be enough to reach the top. For now we will just have to wait and see how this plays out.
-Dan can be reached at [email protected] or @danielgal. Josh can be reached at [email protected] or @jhall282.
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