Ben Askren Retires - Needs a new hip

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La Paix

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I don’t think he could’ve beat prime GSP. The jab would've kept him too far away. However, i do think he could’ve ragdolled and humped most of the top guys in the world in his day.
When was his day? He's younger than GSP, Robbie Lawler, Maia and many others who fought around the same time. Due to fighting lower their guys he's recieved almost no damage until his last three fights in the UFC. What big names or top five/ten guys do you think he could've beat knowing how he did in his last three?
 

Sheepdog

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Dec 1, 2015
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When was his day? He's younger than GSP, Robbie Lawler, Maia and many others who fought around the same time. Due to fighting lower their guys he's recieved almost no damage until his last three fights in the UFC. What big names or top five/ten guys do you think he could've beat knowing how he did in his last three?
Well, he did beat Lawler for a start. He looked good against Maia, who was an awful matchup, scoring 4 takedowns against a guy who had only been taken down 3 times previously in all of his WW fights combined. And the Masvidal finish was a 1/1000 occurrence.

He will forever remain a 'what if'. He had a solid career, but never proved he was able to lay claim to being at the top of the heap. On the other hand, his two losses didn't expose him as some fraud.
 

Onetrickpony

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Nov 21, 2016
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Highly unlikely. He went from playing rodeo on low level dudes to facing guys he's been saying he could beat for years. This is one of the rare occasions when years of online debate played out IRL for MMA fans. Ben got his opportunity and we saw where he sits on the spectrum.
Writing off his competition as ‘low level dudes’ isn’t right. Ben dominated Lima and Rory (who at the time was a top 5 in the world) got his leg destroyed and would have lost if Lima had just stood the fuck up.

I’m no Askren fan and hated his style but have to admit, that he may have been an incredibly boring blanket, his style won fights.
 

Robbie Hart

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Feb 13, 2015
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Writing off his competition as ‘low level dudes’ isn’t right. .
Agree, you cannot call fighters "low level" in these org's as they go in and have to have a high level of expertise in some or all disciplines....
 

La Paix

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Writing off his competition as ‘low level dudes’ isn’t right. Ben dominated Lima and Rory (who at the time was a top 5 in the world) got his leg destroyed and would have lost if Lima had just stood the fuck up.

I’m no Askren fan and hated his style but have to admit, that he may have been an incredibly boring blanket, his style won fights.
The Lima fight is the only fight ever mentioned to pump Ben's tires and it took place back in 2012. Not sure why you bring up Rory here. Go look at Askrens resume as tell me how many guys names you recognize or former champions there are. I have no problem with his style or Ben himself. Go watch his highlight reel of him sitting on guys while playing to the crowd then go watch what happened to him against Lawler, Jorge and Maia. I can't see how anybody can watch the two and not realize the step up in competition. I'm not calling his other opponents bums but compared to the WWs in the UFC they are most certainly a lower level.

With 22 fights under his belt how many top 5 or 10 guys did he face?
 

La Paix

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I don’t see anyone named Rory on his record
I can only assume it's MMA math. Askren beat Lima who gave Rory a hell of a fight (fights were six years apart).

It's so strange that were having almost the same debate about Askren even after watching him get beat up once signing to the UFC. I can't help but assume that if had faced stiffer competition early on he may have been forced to developed a well rounded game instead of just doubling down on wrestling.