Has Ben Askren Had One Of The Most Wasted Careers In MMA?

No

any fighter that makes good money is a winner in all respects

Askren took the easy and guaranteed money and let the losers fight for 10/10 in the UFC

Askeren canstill go and compete in RIZIN by the way which is a much bigger honour than fighting on the prelims of "Dude wipes and FOX presents"
 
With a friendly lineup of opponents I think he could have been a UFC champion a couple of years ago.

The interesting thing with Ben (and I have no way of proving it) is his career will be both longer and shorter than it should be.

His style doesn't require explosiveness, which should help him be competitive even at an old age but it is my belief that he is drug free that will really hurt his legacy. Drugs help fighters stay at the top as their testosterone starts to disappear. His style will help hide that, but if he would just take PEDs like 95% of the athletes he would still probably be a beast.
 
No

any fighter that makes good money is a winner in all respects

I think I can get behind this logic; although I'd have a hard time calling Bob Sapp a winner. He is a strong financial provider for his family though and doesn't take a lot of damage, so his plan worked out good, but still can't call him a winner.
 
I think I can get behind this logic; although I'd have a hard time calling Bob Sapp a winner. He is a strong financial provider for his family though and doesn't take a lot of damage, so his plan worked out good, but still can't call him a winner.


I feel like people always overlook the beatings Bob Sapp took in his career

For example in his fight against Fujita he was wrestled down and Fujita started to throw soccer kicks at Bob's head with 240 pounds of juiced out force that's partly why Bob's head has those dimples on it today

For me as a fan he has made me happy, he has made tens of millions of people around the world happy, he had made himself and his family rich and happy

That kind of person is one of MMA's treasures
 
No doubt from a competition stand point his career to this point is wasted. Bank account looks good but fans barely care.

I really hope he pushes One FC this year to give him fights or let him out of his contract. Hasn't One FC even said in not so many words they can only have Askren fight on certain cards because of his pay? To me that sounds like an anchor for them as I doubt Askren brings much to the table in viewership. I know he got his contract reworked right after his second fight on a six fight contract. God I hope he got some kind of out clause after he defended his belt so many times so they can't lock him into a Championship clause over and over.
 
If he's happy and makes good money then its cool.

But yeah we didnt get to see him in with the best, his career completely faded away. He was one of the more talked about fighters towards end of his Bellator run. Then he went to oneFC and because he kept his name out there talking about Dana, UFC, UFC champs people still paid attention to him and watched his fights.

now though nobody seems to really care cause he barely fights anymore and when he does its vs someone nobody knows/cares about.

We never got the Sapo rematch which was the one fight in ONeFC people actually had some interest in.

Think he's been passed up, not that he coudlnt come in and still be a top fighter but I think the moment might have passed him. Even if he came to UFC tomorrow I dont think the interest/hype would be there like it would have been two years ago. And really it doesnt even seem like Ben cares so it is what it is.

Assume he's happy with the money he makes and with the amount of fights he gets and who he fights cause dont really hear from him much.

In July it will be 4 years since his last Bellator fight and his opponents have been

Bakhtiyar Abbasov
Nobutatsu Suzuki
Luis Santos
Nikolay Aleksakhin
 
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He's fighting at his level where he is IMO. Since he left Bellator, I've only seen his fights against Santos(?) and some unknown Russian guy and he was losing to Santos before the fight was NCed, then he struggled with the Russian but won a close decision in the end.

Bellator would possibly be a good fit for him again but I don't think he could be champ there. No chance whatsoever of putting a streak together against top fighters in the UFC. He's just not up to that calibre.
 
100%. Dude is probably the best wrestler I ever seen competing in folkstyle. He was so goddamn good! He could have done so much more in his MMA career, but Dana White fucked him up by not giving the chance he so obviously deserved.
 
Rickson Gracie wasted potential fighting nobodies.

Sakuraba could've been a top fighter if he wasn't getting his ass kicked by fighters 1 or 2 weight classes above him.
 
I am talking in terms of competing to the best level of peers that can match his level, I ask this because of the amount of times I come across videos online of names in UFC talking about how good he is etc.

Here is one I just came across, Chael Sonnen talks practise room story of Askren & Woodley



He barely fights now, he was rumoured to fight Santos in a rematch in December but never fought at all & is really wasting his prime years away considering he was just dominating during his Bellator title reign, fair enough Koreshkov was roar as hell but he made him look awful in there, had a good win over Lima, those guys are the top guys at Bellator now.

His ONE FC run has been lackluster, looked poor against Santos and he tried to be more fan friendly against Aleksakhin with striking but it was still lackluster.

He should have been in the UFC, yes he hasn't got the style to market, but obviously gets well paid for fighting over in Asia for ONE.

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What about Lee Murray??

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He's fighting at his level where he is IMO. Since he left Bellator, I've only seen his fights against Santos(?) and some unknown Russian guy and he was losing to Santos before the fight was NCed, then he struggled with the Russian but won a close decision in the end.

Bellator would possibly be a good fit for him again but I don't think he could be champ there. No chance whatsoever of putting a streak together against top fighters in the UFC. He's just not up to that calibre.

I think he is quite a bit above the level of competition he is fighting. I also don't think Ben takes his competitors that seriously when it comes down to his training camps either anymore. He isn't training his ass off for three months to go fight the Suzuki's of the world. No reason to put your body through it.

If he got into the UFC I think his training habits would go back to what they were in Bellator if not more serious. Though I will agree I'm not sure he'd get to the top of the UFC. I think there is to many guys that would be bad match ups for him that he'd have a hard stringing enough wins together to be champ. But he'd be in the top 10.
 
I genuinely feel he was caught up in the nonsense between Björn and Dana. I wish he would have fought in the UFC but that time is gone and I hope he's being paid well by One Fc
 
I think he coulda been a UFC champ.. I donno depends what his bank account looks like I guess
 
Didn't he offer to fight for free? I have heard that claim though without a source. If he did than it is definitely a blow to the Zuffa legitmacy of "the best fighting the best".

He actually had the opportunity to fight better comp after his initial 1C contact expired but he was comfortable crushing cans so this is partly his own fault.

1C allows it's fighters to fight outside sometime (Aoki) and so does WSOF (Okami). Maybe someone can find a way to set up Askren v Sheilds?
 
Didn't he offer to fight for free? I have heard that claim though without a source. If he did than it is definitely a blow to the Zuffa legitmacy of "the best fighting the best".

He actually had the opportunity to fight better comp after his initial 1C contact expired but he was comfortable crushing cans so this is partly his own fault.

1C allows it's fighters to fight outside sometime (Aoki) and so does WSOF (Okami). Maybe someone can find a way to set up Askren v Sheilds?

He offered to fight Rory and said that if he didn't win, the UFC would not need to pay him anything. That's how confident he was in his skillset back when he used to take his MMA career seriously. I think back then he was indeed one of the very best in the world, TOP 5 level. But nowadays I think he just had enough of professional fighting and is only making bank.

What are you talking about? His ONEFC contract never expired. He still under the same contract he signed when he left Bellator.
 
He offered to fight Rory and said that if he didn't win, the UFC would not need to pay him anything. That's how confident he was in his skillset back when he used to take his MMA career seriously. I think back then he was indeed one of the very best in the world, TOP 5 level. But nowadays I think he just had enough of professional fighting and is only making bank.

What are you talking about? His ONEFC contract never expired. He still under the same contract he signed when he left Bellator.

I thought he fought it out and than re-signed?
 
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