Ben Askren vs Nikolay Aleksakhin For OneFC WW title April 15th in Manila

[CC27]

http://www.reviewjournal.com/sports/mma-ufc/title-defense-set-one-championship-star-askren-manila

ONE Championship welterweight champion Ben Askren is looking forward to returning to the cage to defend his belt after a bizarre year.

He's particularly eager to move on from Luis Santos.

Askren, widely considered the best welterweight fighter in the world outside of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, will defend his title against Nikolay Aleksakhin in the main event of the ONE: Global Rivals event at Mall of Asia Arena in Manila on April 15.

The 2008 Olympic wrestler and two-time NCAA champion at Missouri had a strange 2015. Askren's April bout against Santos ended in a no contest when Santos couldn't continue after an eye poke in the first round. A potential rematch was scrapped in November when Santos missed weight to nullify the title bout and then, according to ONE officials, refused to accept terms of a second weigh-in.

"I am excited to be fighting since my 2015 was pretty much ruined by one idiot," Askren told the Review-Journal on Wednesday. "I can't wait to get back in the cage and get down to business."

Askren's last official fight came in a successful title defense Nobutatsu Suzuki in August 2014. The former Bellator MMA welterweight champion is 14-0 in his professional MMA career.

"I look forward to facing Aleksakhin. He has a good record and looks like a tough opponent," Askren said. "That being said I expect nothing short of domination."

Askren is 2-0 since signing with ONE Championship in 2014. The four-time All-American at Missouri finished both victories in the first round.

"ONE has been great to me and I am excited to keep helping them grow their brand across Asia and the entire world," he said.

Aleksakhin submitted Burenzorig Batmunkh in his previous ONE appearance.

 

[CC27]

Atleast he's getting paid well.

 

[VIP1349]

Hard to get excited about anything. Every time a fight gets announced that's not Santos we get the fun pleasure of Google searching his opponent.

Is what it is though. I am hoping when all is said and done with his deal the UFC will take him. Now that they have so many shows, really doesn't make sense to not give him a shot.

Here's to hoping the guy he is facing gives him a good run.

 

[Meathead Jock]

Finallllly!!!! Although I heard from a somewhat reliable source that Santos was being offered the fight, i'm curious if he wanted more time off, turned it down, or the person was just flat out wrong.

I see they do Singapore again in November, so i'm guessing they try the Santos fight again in November.

 

[Kinger85]

Easy win for Askren.

 

[Lucifer Alpha]

 

[Meathead Jock]

ONE's signed a few welterweights over the last few months-- Nikolay Aleksakhin, Kim Dae-Ryeong and Djatmiko Waluyo, and Igor Svirid expressed interest last year in dropping down a division to fight Ben, so, assuming Sapo doesn't make a quick turnaround and ONE doesn't bring someone else in to fight him, there are some options for him just within ONE's current borders.
f it's not Santos after his fight in a couple weeks, it's either someone they're bringing in or probably Nikolay.
I'm fine with any of those options.

Impressive fight prediction from a few weeks ago @eseseses681 you are on top of your ONE knowledge.

 

[Meathead Jock]

I had to give myself a refresher too.

 

[WSOFool]

Not too interested...really unless it's Aoki, the female fighters or Vera I'm not that into OneFC these days.

 

[Phrozenspite]

damn... guess we have to hope that Rizin gets us the Askren vs Palhares fight that we need to see

 

[Cheapshart]

Atleast he's getting paid well.

Is he? What are the OneFC champs making?

 

[YesMySon]

sapo was a disgrace.


war ground knees askren

 

[Baguba171]

I hope Askren has a busy year planned

 

[barehanded]

This guy is barely top 10 in Russia.

 

[eseseses681]

Impressive fight prediction from a few weeks ago @eseseses681 you are on top of your ONE knowledge.

Thanks, bruh.

There's a good chance the fight may look like a repeat of Lima-Asukuren, but Nikolay's got real nice boxing and real nice movement and positioning, and he's fast and has an understated amount of power in his hands. That may give him an edge to countering the Funk-wrestling of Ben. He also apparently used to train with Fedor, and he showed good grappling in his ONE debut. It probably would've been better to give him one more fight before they give him a title shot, but with Sapo having just fought and Ben needing a title defense, it makes sense.
Nikolay-Sapo would be a fun fight. Igor Svirid's also apparently said he's dropping down to welterweight, so if he wins a fight he could be an interesting opponent for Ben.
The ranking-queens are gonna be frustrated at everything that happens with the top guys in ONE.

 

[qw3rty]

Nice record to be wrestlefucked to death by Askren

 

[Stan]

So he leave's Bellator to fight against a bunch of no names. Askren refuses to fight a no name that gave him a lot of trouble in a NC fight because he couldn't make weight? Just shows Askren went from someone with a lot of potential to be a top 3 in his weight class to a total loser fighting no names ranked #9 which I believe is way to generous. Should've stayed in Bellator.

 

[frandie2b]

Would be cool if this Russian guy lucky punches Askren into irrelevancy.

 

[Meathead Jock]

So he leave's Bellator to fight against a bunch of no names. Askren refuses to fight a no name that gave him a lot of trouble in a NC fight because he couldn't make weight? Just shows Askren went from someone with a lot of potential to be a top 3 in his weight class to a total loser fighting no names ranked #9 which I believe is way to generous. Should've stayed in Bellator.

He went from ranked 5th (too lazy to look it up) and after his move has dropped to 9th. He gets paid about 5 times as much as he did at Bellator but sure HE is a loser because his vitamin uped opponent missed weight by a couple of pounds in a title fight then refused to weigh less than 190lbs the morning of the fights.

Ranked 5th or 9th its all the same.. if you're not going to end up 1st you gotta chase that biggest paycheck.

 

[YesMySon]

So he leave's Bellator to fight against a bunch of no names. Askren refuses to fight a no name that gave him a lot of trouble in a NC fight because he couldn't make weight? Just shows Askren went from someone with a lot of potential to be a top 3 in his weight class to a total loser fighting no names ranked #9 which I believe is way to generous. Should've stayed in Bellator.

Sapo didn't even try to make weight and wanted no part of askren. Askren gave him probably the most lenient and easily obtainable weight to show up at and Sapo went to a buffet so he would miss weight.