The man to finish Ben Askren

Outside of the UFC and Bellator, the most dangerous opponent for Askren is Palhares--and he has a decent chance of finishing him. I seriously doubt Ben would ever fight him, though.
 
mkt said:
Outside of the UFC and Bellator, the most dangerous opponent for Askren is Palhares--and he has a decent chance of finishing him. I seriously doubt Ben would ever fight him, though.
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Well he's retiring next week and he's not gonna come out of retirement to fight the 1-2-1-since-2016 Rousimar Palhares just to prove something to a minority of people on the Internet about a 2014-era fantasy matchup, so your doubts would be accurate.
We MAY see the two of them in a grappling match in the future, though-- Ben's said he's interested in occasionally doing some grappling matches just for fun (since the training won't be as severe and all-encompassing since he won't be trying to be a hyper-elite competitor in the sport of submission grappling), so maybe some promoter'll try to put the match together in the future and Asukuren will be in the mood.
 
eseseses681 said:
Well he's retiring next week and he's not gonna come out of retirement to fight the 1-2-1-since-2016 Rousimar Palhares just to prove something to a minority of people on the Internet about a 2014-era fantasy matchup, so your doubts would be accurate.
We MAY see the two of them in a grappling match in the future, though-- Ben's said he's interested in occasionally doing some grappling matches just for fun (since the training won't be as severe and all-encompassing since he won't be trying to be a hyper-elite competitor in the sport of submission grappling), so maybe some promoter'll try to put the match together in the future and Asukuren will be in the mood.
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Palhares hasn't looked good of late, but his weakness has always been strikers...something pillow-fisted Ben has never been mistaken for. It would've been about 1,000 times better than Aoki, though. He was easily handled in the grappling department by now FW Gilbert Melendez.

And I don't like Palhares at all, for the record.
 
mkt said:
It would've been about 1,000 times better than Aoki, though. He was easily handled in the grappling department by now FW Gilbert Melendez.
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Lolwut? Did you watch that fight? He was not "easily handled" on the mat by Gilbert. This's literally what Gilbert did:
A - Stay about two feet away from Aoki's guard with a knee on the ground so Aoki couldn't upkick, then occasionally jump in with a light shot to the body and back out again.
B - Capitalize on Aoki's cage naivete [it was his first fight in a cage after 30 fights in a ring and his gym didn't have a cage to train in, and grappling significantly changes between the two] by wedging him against the fence every time he tried to get some rubber-guard going. Then lay on him until he released it, and back away to either repeat A or stand up and land a couple light jabs every minute.

He "handled" Aoki's grappling the same way Condit handled Nick Diaz. Not to mention that Aoki's improved his grappling in every area since then (especially in the cage, since he's had 8 fights in a cage since then, including 7 of his last 11.) It's really ridiculous to write off Aoki's grappling skills and to think he has no chance against Ben on the ground.
Gilbert was also a featherweight at the start of his career-- he went like 8-0 in the division before moving up to lightweight-- so saying he's a featherweight now like it's adding insult to injury isn't really accurate. He was about the same size against Aoki as he was against Henderson, and nobody would've called him a featherweight then just because he fought in the division.
 
eseseses681 said:
Lolwut? Did you watch that fight? He was not "easily handled" on the mat by Gilbert. This's literally what Gilbert did:
A - Stay about two feet away from Aoki's guard with a knee on the ground so Aoki couldn't upkick, then occasionally jump in with a light shot to the body and back out again.
B - Capitalize on Aoki's cage naivete [it was his first fight in a cage after 30 fights in a ring and his gym didn't have a cage to train in, and grappling significantly changes between the two] by wedging him against the fence every time he tried to get some rubber-guard going. Then lay on him until he released it, and back away to either repeat A or stand up and land a couple light jabs every minute.

He "handled" Aoki's grappling the same way Condit handled Nick Diaz. Not to mention that Aoki's improved his grappling in every area since then (especially in the cage, since he's had 8 fights in a cage since then, including 7 of his last 11.) It's really ridiculous to write off Aoki's grappling skills and to think he has no chance against Ben on the ground.
Gilbert was also a featherweight at the start of his career-- he went like 8-0 in the division before moving up to lightweight-- so saying he's a featherweight now like it's adding insult to injury isn't really accurate. He was about the same size against Aoki as he was against Henderson, and nobody would've called him a featherweight then just because he fought in the division.
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Aoki vs. Askren is a joke. Aoki lost to the only Top 10 LWs he fought since 2008 (Gil and 1st round KO loss to Eddie). Aoki has fought at FW and could easily fight there again. Askren is an allegedly Top 5 WW and is fighting a guy 2 weight classes smaller...and Askren can easily use his wrestling, size and a conservative strategy to lay on Aoki for 2 rounds.
 
Looking at Tap, Hinds passed the hype onto Christophe Van Dijk, who passed the hype onto Emil Meek, who passed the hype onto Kamaru Usman.

Usman finished the guy who finished Askren, so the cycle is complete.
 
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