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Ben Askren gives his take on his upcoming headliner fight against Demian Maia in Singapore.
UFC welterweight contender Ben Askren will headline UFC Singapore against Demian Maia in a week. And unlike his two previous opponents since his Octagon debut in March, “Funky” is matched up against someone who’d likely choose to grapple than fight on the feet.
Askren knows the caliber of fighter he’s dealing with, and he’s already formulated a strategy around it.
“I’m not gonna go out there and do dumb stuff to take Demian down, like, real risky stuff,” Askren told Submission Radio. “I’m not gonna do that. But I will go for the takedowns, and I am very comfortable on the ground. I actually brought in a really high-level grappler for my training camp, and I have a high-level coach in Mark Layman, and just, everything was feeling really good.
“I’m preparing for a lot of positions that I think we’ll see in the fight,” he continued. “So, I’m not gonna just dive in for takedowns, but I probably will get my takedowns, I will secure top position. I think I’m a very dominant top position and I’ll be able to stuff all of his sweeps and land a lot of damage from top.”
Askren also gave props to his opponent’s wrestling abilities, having seen how takedowns are a weakness for many jiu-jitsu fighters.
“Jiu Jitsu guys have no takedowns,” he said. “And we saw it with Kron Gracie. Kron Gracie is legit a very high-level grappler. This man won the ADCC’s. I can’t remember what year right now, but he won the ADCC’s, and yet he looked clueless. He looked absolutely freaking clueless on how to get a takedown last Saturday night. It was ridiculous. It’s not like Cub Swanson was a high-level division-one wrestler. That was not the case.
“And so one of the things that I actually appreciate and like about Demian, is that he’s a Jiu Jitsu guy who kind of put his ego away and said, okay, well, I am a Jiu Jitsu guy, but I’m gonna learn how to wrestle so I can take people down and then do my Jiu Jitsu from there,” he added. “And I like that. And I don’t think enough Jiu Jitsu people do that. And I think if more people followed Demian’s lead they would be better off.”
UFC Singapore takes place on October 26th at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.