Did Ben Askren Waste his Career.......

[560ti]

I doubt that the compensation differences were sufficient to overcome the massive increase in bullshit he would probably be dealing with in the UFC.

IIRC, he has some schools running as well. I'm sure all things considered, he's pretty happy with his choices.

OneFC has already agreed to give him a full time company position after his November fight so i'm sure he's cool with that.

Higher paydays at OneFC and a full time job offer once retired. I doubt he's complaining

 

[Bobby Boulders]

idk considering how many times he's bitched at Dana for not signing him, he might have at least one regret

Huh?

 

[freaky]

He was signed with Bellator. All his wins came by decision. Then he signed with FC One, I'm guessing it's because they offered more money than Bellator. He still went to deicision with on of the cans in FC. So...Why did he sign with FC and not Bellator? Why Bellator didn't offer more money for their WW champ?

 

[FrodoFraggins]

He refused to change his style even a little and so he was blacklisted by the UFC and Bellator.

He ruined his career by being one unapologetically one dimensional and boring and the fans didn't want to watch him fight. the same couldn't be said of GSP.

 

[beastman]

No.

Askren has a very successful wrestling school and has made plenty of money without taking much damage. There's probably a few colleges wanting him to coach wrestling there. He's got the OneFC gig.

I would have liked to see him switch training camps and go for a more submission oriented style, but whatever. He kind of reminds me of Roy Nelson in that he's going to do what he wants to do and doesn't give a crap what the fans think. that said, I would love to see him do ADCC or some other grappling event. His grappling style is really unique.

 

[KeepItRealist]

Depends. If ever wanted to be taken seriously as a great fighter, then yes, no way with his resume. But apparently he's made some money and appears to have future job prospects.

And in ONE FC he's in a third tier organization fighting fourth tier guys and he's only fighting once a year. You would think he would want to fight 3 times a year against the opposition there for the paydays.

 

[That209]

Not really his fault Dana wouldn't sign him. He talked tons of shit about Dana eventually but it's not like he didn't deserve it. Dana didn't like his style so he didn't sign him and Askren shit talked him for years about everything then, same as Dana shit talking him. Maybe Dana was scared Askren would win the belt. He wasn't the most entertaining fighter but some of his fights were entertaining cause he stopped laying around and actually mauled his opponents for a bit. Idk about Bellator, but Askren went where he was gonna be paid most and that's what all fighters should do. Go where the best deal is. I'd rather a good payday over being popular. There's lots of popular fighters not getting paid shit.

 

[snootylol]

No one will remember him in 2 years from now.. let alone 10.. But would he have done well in the ufc anyway? I highly doubt he would have won the title

In money terms he made the right choice though

 

[trident]

Bellator let him go when he was their champ.

Can you imagine something like happening today in the UFC?

He was let go because his style, while effective, is like reading Chaucer at midnight.

He never adapted or was able to interweave excitement into his game plan.

Also he drove up to Dana's driveway and dumped a pile of cow shit in front of his garage.

He was basically saying, "I never want to fight for you". It was a stupid business move and maybe an act based on fear of fighting in the organization.

Who knows? He was able to have a moderately successful career with what he stuck with, and has a lifetime of coaching jobs available when he retires from fighting.

To say he could have had a better career would mean he would have to have been a different person.

Had he not publicly shit on Dana, and fought in the UFC, he could have had an awful career, been "exposed", and left a disgrace.

He probably played his cards right in the end.

 

[eseseses681]

I think it's silly how people think Askren would have been incapable of winning a title in the UFC.
The only thing that separated Maia (who's currently ranked in the top-3-5) from winning the UFC title was his basic wrestling skills, and Askren's a WAY better wrestler than Maia is, and his top game's as good as Maia's (in a different way, but in the same league, yes.)

Sherdog doesnt even have him in the Honorable Mentions after their top 10.....

That's because Sherdog refuses to recognize ONE's new hydrated weigh-in protocols [which's silly, because the fighters are all actually entering the cage at the same weight regardless and it's like an open secret that no welterweights in the top-50 are actually 170 pounds when they're fighting, the only difference is they're not suffering needlessly under ONE's system], not because Askren's accomplishments in ONE haven't been good.
Bibiano got taken out of Bantamweight because of that, as did Adriano Moraes and Kairat at flyweight, and Gafurov probably would've gotten into the top-15 at featherweight at the end of 2016 were it not for that.
A lot of other rankings still have him (and Bibi, by the way) ranked.
http://mmajunkie.com/rankings/welter
http://www.espn.com/mma/story/_/id/12885899/espn-division-division-rankings-welterweight
http://rankingmma.com/mma-world-rankings/welterweight/

 

[Uber_Noober]

I think you're askren the wrong question.

 

[Fatal Catro]

Yes, for ego.

Dana and Lorenzo made time for this man, and they advised him to go to WSOF.

His reposes was to curse the shit out of them "you cant tell me what to do... *rant rant*" etc

Or at the least he shouldn't have made it his mission to talk shit about the UFC and especially Dana White whenever he could.


Immature Ego. The fall of this man.

What fall ?.

 

[Fatal Catro]

Having seen a good lot of his fights, I doubt he'd have done particularly well in the UFC. He'd need to get in around the top ten or into contendership to get paid 50k per fight and I don't think he'd have been able to. Even if he had, his style runs him the risk of being cut for being boring like Fitch, Shields etc. So he made the right choice IMO.

You're right about the pay, but he could definitely work his way up higher than you think.

 

[Cooliox]

What fall ?.

He went from Bellator Champion to competing in unsanctioned MMA against guys who don't even have wiki pages.

 

[MUSTANG!]

 

[superpunch]

Seriously? How so?

"Askren will be making a guaranteed $50,000 just to show up for his first bout with ONE FC. There's another $50,000 to be awarded as a win bonus if Askren can find his hand raised."

I dont think hed be making much more in the ufc. But he'd definitely be fighting guys that would give him memory problems, confusion, loss of sense of direction, headaches, etc. for the rest of his life

 

[savemgs]

He went where he was wanted. Both Bellator and the UFC didn't want him on even on a minimum $ contract. Dana White called him the most boring fighter alive and said he would never sign him. When you take that into consideration Ben did what he had to do and went overseas and fought bums. You can't really blame him as he didn't have many options.

This.

 

[Jizzer]

never heard of the chap, so yes.....

 

[Toco]

one of the biggest frauds in the sport. ducked sapo because he was 2 pounds overweight

 

[campbecc]

Seriously? How so?

"Askren will be making a guaranteed $50,000 just to show up for his first bout with ONE FC. There's another $50,000 to be awarded as a win bonus if Askren can find his hand raised."

the next paragraph: "The former Bellator champ also has an incentive clause that raises his purse should he continue his winning ways."