Here we go again, with another reminder of what MMA is all about. This time it’s courtesy of still Bellator Fighting Championships welterweight champion Ben Askren (10-0, 7-0 BFC).
After getting heartily booed by the misplaced among the audience in his unanimous decision win over challenger Brazilian Douglas Lima (21-5, 3-1 BFC) in the Bellator 64 main event Friday at Caesars in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, the American Olympic wrestler said after the fight that, “If you don’t like the groundwork, there’s a sport they call boxing…it’s not as fun, though. I suggest you keep on coming here and watching my ass whoopin’s.”
The fans obviously preferred more standup action from the champion and for the challenger who’s coming fresh off two consecutive KO wins, with a total of seven victories by KO. But, as the rules allow it (ahem), defending champion Askren chose to take down his opponent at will and punish him from on top for five full rounds.
And, as the rules also allow, Askren rained punches, elbows and hammerfists from inside Lima’s guard after taking him down again and again. The defending champion even tried to submit his opponent with a third-round brabo choke—another legal MMA move—albeit unsuccessful.
Lima, for his part, landed a few right hands, some punches and submission attempts from the bottom, a nifty first-round sweep and not much else.
At the end of the second round, the Brazilian representing American Top Team Atlanta already appeared vanquished by the American carrying the colors of Roufusport from Milwaukee, Wis.
No one should really be surprised by the Olympic wrestler’s mode of fighting. Askren has already revealed this beforehand in his Sherdog Radio Network’s “Savage Dog Show” interview, stating that, “I really think [that whether an opponent is] dangerous or not dangerous, the best thing I can do is put somebody on his back and beat him up.”
I guess the fans who booed him last night wouldn’t want to see him fight Georges St-Pierre, his counterpart champion in the UFC, for the forecasted stylistic similarities.
Well, no rule prohibits fans from not watching—or booing.
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