KSW offers Ben Askren a fight at the stadium with 58k audience

Everyone kissing Ben’s ass except the one org he wants.
 
Lewandowski is just seeking for attention.
He would never sign Askren. Economically it wouldn't make sense for him, because nobody in Poland knows/gives a fuck about Asken. He will stay by signing the likes of Pudzianowski,Popek,Burneika or Oswiecinski.

I also don't really see a reason why Askren would want to fight at KSW. Even the small WW division there is better and more dangerous than the one he had in ONE FC.
 
This would only make sense for KSW, if they could get Ben Askren for less than 250k $ per fight, which is not going to happen.
As for KSW, signing Askren would get them some free press around the world and while Askren is virtually unknown in Poland, KSW would promote Askren and more KSW fans will be willing to buy PPV and tickets, to see such a world class figher challenge a KSW star... And here comes the next problem: Askren fights at WW, where KSW doensn't have a star right now that can move the niddle. At MW they got Khalidov, but he just lost, wants a rematch with Narkun at LHW and has still a marketable challenger in Scott Askham at MW.
KSW star, that needs a challenge is Gamrot a LW, but would Askren go down to LW? I doubt it, not for 250k. Besides Gamrot is good, but with all the wins he cannot get a lot of fans behind him.

One more thing: how bad is Bellators and One FC marketing, if their best fighter has only 39k Facebook followers? That not even close to the million Facebook fans Khalidov has.
 
I don't understand this "nobody knows who he is" angle. If someone knows Mamed Khalidov, it's not because they are Polish and take an interest in Polish celebrities. It's because they are a mixed martial arts fan, and the combination of the company's nationality and his success is what drives the fans to him. No one who isn't an MMA fan knows or follows someone like Mamed Khalidov.

So, in this, they know who Ben Askren is. He's a very well known fighter and probably the most well-known fighter not signed to UFC. Signing him would bring a lot of attention to the company and drive up their PPV sales. In addition to this, they would be signing a highly legitimate mixed martial artist.

KSW is currently working on building up Roberto Soldic. He's one of the brightest prospects in the sport, and when he took their Welterweight they knew they had someone they could work with. He was a featured guest interview at KSW 42, and he is now co-main eventing KSW 43. KSW would relish the opportunity to put Askren in the ring with Soldic, if he gets passed Dricus Du Plessis of course. Additionally, there may be the scope for Gamrot to move up to WW, or for Khalidov to fight him at a catchweight.
 
Unrelated story: The national polish sleep convention will be held at the same stadium and at the same time they want Askren to fight.
 
Europe_MMA said:
I don't understand this "nobody knows who he is" angle. If someone knows Mamed Khalidov, it's not because they are Polish and take an interest in Polish celebrities. No one who isn't an MMA fan knows or follows someone like Mamed Khalidov.
Click to expand...

That's far from the truth. According to the most recent 2017 study of top 50 polish athletes by awerness, Khalidov is ranked 27 with 58% of Poles knowing who he is. That's much below Pudzianowski with 85%, but much better than Joanna Jędrzejczyk, who is ranked 45 with 35% of Poles knowing who she is.

Khalidov's fight highlights have been shown in the news (sports part), he is has been i many TV commercials. My older female colleagues watched Khalidov fights, even thought their mothers, interested in fashion and don't even know the sport is called MMA. Here are two of his TV commercials:


And an VOD spot with Marcin Gortat:


I am not sure if any MMA fighter in the UK or USA has an awerness of more than 58%, maybe Conor or Rousey.
 
KSW ownes the polish MMA scene.
On the one hand it's good because they made MMA mainstream in Poland on the other hand it's also a bit sad because MMA in Poland = KSW. Like Mihauki said, there are people that think that KSW is the name of the sport.

Guys like Bedorf and Khalidov are huge in Poland, but at the same time barely someone knows an UFC champion not coming from Poland or named McGregor.

The thing with KSW is that , although their level of competition isn't the best, they know how to promote their product. They do a lot of things beside the sport.
People don't watch it because it's MMA, they watch it because it's KSW.

And so it comes that fighters on whom they build their brand on are extremly popular in Poland,while guys like Askren are not.
 
Last edited:
Europe_MMA said:
I don't understand this "nobody knows who he is" angle. If someone knows Mamed Khalidov, it's not because they are Polish and take an interest in Polish celebrities. It's because they are a mixed martial arts fan, and the combination of the company's nationality and his success is what drives the fans to him. No one who isn't an MMA fan knows or follows someone like Mamed Khalidov.

So, in this, they know who Ben Askren is. He's a very well known fighter and probably the most well-known fighter not signed to UFC. Signing him would bring a lot of attention to the company and drive up their PPV sales. In addition to this, they would be signing a highly legitimate mixed martial artist.

KSW is currently working on building up Roberto Soldic. He's one of the brightest prospects in the sport, and when he took their Welterweight they knew they had someone they could work with. He was a featured guest interview at KSW 42, and he is now co-main eventing KSW 43. KSW would relish the opportunity to put Askren in the ring with Soldic, if he gets passed Dricus Du Plessis of course. Additionally, there may be the scope for Gamrot to move up to WW, or for Khalidov to fight him at a catchweight.
Click to expand...

This.... Buddy speaks for all of Poland claiming they do not know who Ben is... Just because the Polish are a very loyal fanbase to their home talent does not mean they do not know Ben or other fighters outside of Poland Lol what a lamoid
 
Askren would dominate all of their talent from 170 to 205.
 
id watch if possible. mind as well fight and get that money instead of sitting on the sidelines imo. he can dominate whichever ksw guy that have him fight and that may help him with the ufc negotiations even further
 
Historic. 58k people falling asleep at once.
 
Ben Askren was getting paid 500k+50k at OneFC. I really don't think paying him that much would make sense for any org. He isn't too exciting and his best fightmatrix ranking was #6 at WW back in 2013. Right now Damian Maia is ranked #6 and he is getting 84k+84k in the UFC, which btw is crazy low for somebody who fought 28 times for the UFC and was just recently a title challenger.
 
I would love to see what Askrin could do vs Maded Khalidov at middleweight in KSW.​
 
Ben Askren made 500k+50k per fight at OneFC, is ranked #28 at Figthmatrix, has 39k Facebook fans and a not too exciting fight style.
Gustaffson makes 51k+51k, is ranked #5 at Fightmatrix, has 599k Facebook fans, was the main reason UFC Stockholm had a 3,1 million gate, fought for KSW and would help KSW massively in the planned expansion to Sweden.
Blachowicz makes 36k+36k, is ranked #12 at Fightmatrix, has 99k Facebook fans, is a former KSW champion. 2 bonus of the night in last 3 fights.

Gustaffson and Blachowicz are just examples. They are under contract with the UFC, but in recent years many UFC fighters left the UFC after their contract expired (mainly to Bellator). Now why would KSW pay the relatively unknown, low ranked, not exciting to watch Askren a 200k+ contract, if they could offer that same amount to any higher ranked UFC fighter with more fans, that becomes a free agent soon? You can probably find 50+ fighters, that make less than Askren, have only one fight on their contract left and would make from a business perspective way more sense to hire.
 
why would an org want to have good fighters when they can just run mma sweatshops?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,236,663
Messages
55,432,835
Members
174,775
Latest member
kilgorevontrouty

Share this page

Back
Top