Ben Askren may still be the best MMA fighter outside of the UFC. He won the Bellator welterweight championship in 2010, and defended it successfully four times before being released in 2013. He signed with ONE Championship and won the promotion title on August 29, 2014. Askren had one fight in 2015, vs. Luis ‘Sapo’ Santos, which ended in a No Contest due to an eye poke. He had one fight in 2016, which became non title when opponent Nikolay Aleksakhin missed weight.
Other fights fell through for various reasons. A rematch with Sapo fell through when the Brazilian missed weight, and then bizarrely refused to fight at a catchweight of 190. A superfight with ONE Middleweight champion Vitaly Bigdash was delayed with the planned Thai arena fell through due to the death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, and Bigdash bizarrely pulled out of the rescheduled fight.
At last at ONE: Dynasty of Heroes, on May 26 ‘Funky’ fights undefeated Agilan Thani.
I finally have an opponent, and I really need to be more active this year, said Askren to Shaun Al-Shatti for MMA Fighting. Obviously I’m 32 years old now, I am getting a little older, and I have been fairly inactive over the last couple of years. So, I need to have a lot of fights this year, and I hope ONE is going to provide that for me.
The thing I tell them is, yeah, I get that it sucks for you guys as a promotion that [Bigdash] said no, and then ‘Sapo’ said no after he said he wanted to beat me. That sucks for you guys, right? But you need to give yourself more options. Because as a fighter, it’s not my fault. If I’m saying yes to everything — I’ll say yes to damn near anything, right? — if I’m saying yes and they’re saying no, that’s not my fault. And if you’ve got a bunch of idiots who keep saying no, then you probably need to sign more welterweights who would say yes.”
Part of the problem is Askren’s own success. The two-time All American and former Olympian is 15-0 in MMA. How many free agent welterweights out there are a truly equal fight for him? None? Years ago the fighter had referenced retiring at age 30. Askren turns 33 in July and says he is close to retiring and that it’s possible 2017 is his last year. He and his brother Max are opening the third Askren Wrestling Academy. He hopes for three or four fights this year.
There’s more to life than fighting, said Askren. I love running my business and I love wrestling, I love helping kids. And every athlete hangs on too long. They want the limelight, they want the glory, they want the money. But if you’re smart with your money, and you don’t really care about the glory or the limelight, it ain’t so bad to leave.
ONE CEO Victor Cui was entirely sympathetic, noting that matchmaker and VP Matt Hume is a good friend of Askren’s and that the promotion is busting its butt to make a fight for Funky. Cui explained that 2017’s events are sets, and lots of slots are available. First stop is ONE: Dynasty of Heroes, on May 26 in Singapore at Singapore Indoor Stadium.
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