Ben Askren could've been a consistent top 5 fighter in the UFC

Versace said:
No he wasn't, plus he was washed up by the time he fought Askren

That shows Askren's true ability, which was being borderline top 20 WW even in his prime
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How exactly was he washed up when he won his last 10 fights prior to fighting Askren, several over UFC vets?

Bordeline top 20 with wins over guys like Lima that have sat in the top 10 for years?

Kid go to bed.
 
Dirge said:
How exactly was he washed up when he won his last 10 fights prior to fighting Askren, several over UFC vets?

Bordeline top 20 with wins over guys like Lima that have sat in the top 10 for years?

Kid go to bed.
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Lima's TDD sucked then, and who knows how well Lima would do in the UFC

If Askren beat someone who actually knew how to wrestle, color me impressed
 
Dirge said:
?

When he fought Askren he was 22-4 and on a on 10 fight win streak with wins over guys that fought in the UFC, you know like Jesse Taylor who won TUF, Joe Riggs, etc.

I'd say being on a 10 fight streak with a 22-4 record going into the fight with Askren, Hieron was actually at the peak of his career.
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He went 1-3, including his loss to Askren, to finish off his career. On top of that, he wasn't exactly fighting world beaters during his win streak.

He wasn't at the peak of his career, he was on his down slide. That's why he retired just over a year after his fight with Askren.
 
Brandon Wilson said:
He went 1-3, including his loss to Askren, to finish off his career. On top of that, he wasn't exactly fighting world beaters during his win streak.

He wasn't at the peak of his career, he was on his down slide. That's why he retired just over a year after his fight with Askren.
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He sustained a pretty bad back injury in training not long after the Askren fight. I always assumed that's why he fell off and eventually retired.

He fought some decent guys in that last run, Jesse Taylor is a hell of a wrestler (and won TUF). Joe Riggs was pretty damn tough as well.
 
Dirge said:
He sustained a pretty bad back injury in training not long after the Askren fight. I always assumed that's why he fell off and eventually retired.

He fought some decent guys in that last run, Jesse Taylor is a hell of a wrestler (and won TUF). Joe Riggs was pretty damn tough as well.
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Sure, good fighters, but not world beaters. Anyone that makes it to the pros is a very good fighter.

On top of what I've previously stated, Hieron was also 8 plus years, and 26 fights into his career. He was also 34 yrs old. And Askren just squeaked out the win.

Anyway, Askren was a decent fighter. His limited skillset makes me question how he'd have done in the UFC. Though we have seen specialists like Maia do very well for themselves, so who knows?
 
Well, Robbie Lawler was his first fight. Robbies TDD is fantastic. He is a nightmare for a wrestler. Ben had a rough night but he won. Mas's knee. Come on. It is on par with Conor knocking out aldo and Uriah ko'ing moose. Pretty damn hard to repeat. Maiai? Well, Ben was up two rounds before getting caught. His UFC career was short, and had a lot of rough spots, but for an over the prime guy that came out of retirement, he did pretty damn good.

Put it another way for guys that never seen him fight in his prime. His grappling reminds me of Khabibs grappling. His striking was way worse, but his grappling was right there.
 
He coulda

iu
 
Dana threw him to the wolves. Lawler and Mas to start? That’s tough . I think if he was treated like a normal guy coming in he would have probably gotten a top 15 guy then step up but Dana wasn’t into that and had to prove a point.
 
I think the Lawler fight worked out great for everyone involved.

Lawler took a loss,but his fans of course sided with him

Askren won a fight,and showed serious grit to continue after that beating.and uttered the infamous "is that the best you got,ufc?" Tremendous.

and due to the controversial nature of the fight,people were INCENSED.

That alone made Askren way more interesting than anything involving DJ
 
Hes one of the worst male sturikers in the sport not named CM Punk

With how bad his standup is theres no way hed be a "consistent" or perennial top 5 guy but could be ranked there sporadically depending on matchup
 
ExitLUPin said:
Hes one of the worst male sturikers in the sport not named CM Punk

With how bad his standup is theres no way hed be a "consistent" or perennial top 5 guy but could be ranked there sporadically depending on matchup
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And yet he beat a former UFC champ that is a striker in Robbie. In his first fight. And even worse, Robbie came into that fight with some full on bad mojo. He was looking to end Ben badly.
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I mean, if you have seen tons of fights, you know Robbie gave no fucks about seeing round 4. He was full on beserker mode. That first minute would have been bad for ANY fighter.
 
Ben Askren was a good fighter but he mostly fought only a bunch of cans in Bellator and in Asia. He did face some legit competition though, so we know for a fact that he was skilled in certain areas. That being said, he could probably have reached a top 5 ranking at some point but since his striking was terrible, he was always going to be limited. I'm a huge fan of Maia but he couldn't strike either and when he faced someone with good TDD and striking, he would lose. I won't bother looking up historical rankings, but I suspect Maia was in the top 5 at some point in time after facing good fighters but with mediocre TDD but once he fought someone with good TDD, he would fall out of the ranking. Same thing would probably have happened with Askren - he can get favourable matchups against ranked opponents and climb the rankings but he would not find success against the elite as they are far more multi dimensional. Would have loved to see a rematch between Askren and Masvidal though, that is probably one of the flukiest wins ever.
 
TooTricky said:
Buy or sell?

I think yes... it just so happened he got caught with that fluke knee from Jorge (Ben wins that fight 9/10 times), and then had one of his worst possible matchups in the division with Maia.

He dominates 25-10 in the rankings and has a good shot at most of the top 10. He's one of those guys who, even though his striking is sub-par, has such elite grappling he can make up for it.

Damn shame he retired, I don't think his run in the UFC was anywhere near done, even though he was in his second half of his 30s. It just seems like he was written off as an exposed hype job, when in reality he had 3 really tough opponents (including a 1st rd chokeout of the former WW champ) and no doubt a vendetta from Dana to try and make him look bad (remember Antonio Mckee?).

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frye666 said:
And yet he beat a former UFC champ that is a striker in Robbie. In his first fight. And even worse, Robbie came into that fight with some full on bad mojo. He was looking to end Ben badly.
BrilliantAdeptHuman-size_restricted.gif

I mean, if you have seen tons of fights, you know Robbie gave no fucks about seeing round 4. He was full on beserker mode. That first minute would have been bad for ANY fighter.
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Actually, the ref should have stopped the fight. Robbie should have been declared the winner.
 
POWER2 said:
Actually, the ref should have stopped the fight. Robbie should have been declared the winner.
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Meh... That is why they have refs. They might mess up but they are trained and they are right there unlike you and me.
 
Maybe back when he was in his prime in Bellator. Definitely not with the 2 years retired Askren with hip problems.
 
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