Former Olympic wrestler looks for 10th MMA win, defends Bellator title in Windsor
Unbeaten. Champion. Ben Askren's move from amateur wrestling to mixed martial arts has been pretty much seamless.
"I could have got a few more finishes. That would have made it nice — and a lot easier," said the former U.S. Olympic wrestler, who stopped his four MMA opponents in the first round but has gone to decision his last five outings. "But, yeah, it's been great so far."
Askren looks to defend his Bellator welterweight title when he takes on Douglas Lima on Friday at Bellator 64 in Windsor, Ont.
Lima (21-4) has had no trouble cutting fights short. The Atlanta-based Brazilian has stopped his opponent in 18 of his 21 wins.
Askren left wrestling after competing at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing where he pinned a Hungarian before losing to a star Cuban.
The five-foot-11 Askren kept his hand in wrestling as a college coach but started training and fighting MMA.
"Fighting started going better and better and better. And then last spring I just decided it was time to be a full-time MMA fighter," he said. "I'm 27 now, going to be 28 soon (in July). Only got a few years left in my prime, essentially, and so might as well make the most of them before I fade away into the sunset."
Askren was a wrestling phenom at the University of Missouri, where he was a two-time NCAA champion at 174 pounds (2006, 2007) two-time runner-up, and four-time all-American from 2004 to 2007.
His career record at Missouri was 153-7. He went undefeated his last two years, winning 87 matches in a row. His 93 wins by fall were the fourth-most in NCAA history.
After graduating in 2007, he did some volunteer coaching at Missouri but focused on his Olympic dream. MMA was already on his mind but Beijing was just 18 months ago.
Coming into Beijing as U.S. champion, he had high hopes for a medal. Falling short hurt.
"At that point I'd got very used to winning and so getting set back like that was obviously real hard on me," he said.
He marched in the opening ceremonies in Beijing, calling it a great experience. But the competition left a sour taste in his mouth.
"When I was there, I was just focused on winning and doing the things I needed to do to win," he said. "And then when I lost, I was just kind of bitter about losing. It isn't a great feeling."
He decided to try MMA for a year, knowing that if it wasn't right for him, he had three more years to prep for the next Olympics.
"But I tried it, I did like it and I stuck with it,'' he said.
The success of Askren's aggressive, scrambling wrestling style has carried over into MMA. He says it bridged nicely into jiu-jitsu — he already has a brown belt.
"Now when I get (opponents) to the ground, I'm really comfortable and I have a significant advantage there also," he said. "Whereas some wrestlers, they're able to take people down but when they get there, they don't have that jiu-jitsu base to be able to really win that position."
A student of the game, Askren has looked to noted Muay Thai coach Duke Roufus to improve his striking. Askren points to UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre as a fighter whose striking skills have helped make his wrestling more dangerous.
"He's such a good striker and he uses his striking to set up his takedowns very well," he said. "When he's hitting you in the face, it's hard to stop a takedown, essentially.
"And that's what he does so well. His MMA wrestling is very good."
Striking, Askren admits, did not come naturally. But he says Roufus and his coaches have made it easier to pick up.
"Wrestling and jiu-jitsu, I'd say like they're cousins," he said. "They're very similar in a lot of ways. But wrestling and kickboxing have very few similarities, so it was a whole different world.
"It's something I'm getting more and more used to and I'm getting a lot better at."
By the end of his amateur career, Askren was growing tired of wrestling.
"I was learning small, new things but I'd been wrestling for close to 20 years so there was very little I could see that I hadn't seen before," he said. "That was getting kind of boring. So that switch over to MMA where everything's new ... that was a lot of fun."
Askren grew but Hartland, Wisc., about 40 kilometres outside Milwaukee, but only moved back last August to train at Roufusport Martial Arts Academy in Milwaukee after spending time as a volunteer assistant wrestling coach at Arizona State.
Askren also runs the Askren Wrestling Academy, which takes in five- through 18-year-olds. He has another coach running it day-to-day but looks in regularly.
"It's great. I really like working with the kids. And it's probably something I'll do in the future going forward,'' he said.
The 24-year-old Lima is riding a nine-bout win streak of his own. He has fought at Caesars Windsor before, stopping UFC veteran Terry Martin in just 74 seconds at MFC 29 in April 2011.
He has gone 3-0 in Bellator since, earning a decision over Steve Karl and stopping Chris Lozano and Ben Saunders to win the Season 5 welterweight tournament and earn a shot at the champion.
Askren is coming off a split decision win over Jay Hieron, the Season 4 tournament winner.
"I wanted it to be a dominant performance. And essentially it was a fairly close fight," he said. "I think it's one I won, no doubt, but it definitely wasn't dominating, it was far from dominating.
"So I was disappointed in myself. I have a lot better performances in me and I expect a performance considerably better this weekend."
He believes his progress in striking will allow him to be more aggressive, although he is aware of the stylish Lima's punching power.
"But in MMA a lot of people hit hard and I think he has some other weaknesses that other people are neglecting to see — wrestling being an obvious one,'' he said. "So I should be able to take advantage of all that stuff."
Askren, an avid disc golfer when not training, won Season 2 in Bellator before dethroning 170-pound champion Lyman Good.
