We still don’t know who Ben Askren will be fighting at the MOA Arena in Manila on April 21st. But in a twitter conversation last weekend, the reigning ONE Championship welterweight king confirmed he signed on the dotted line for a rematch with Luis Santos.
Said yes 3 weeks ago. Don’t know about him. https://t.co/iXvVbanJdt
— Ben Askren (@Benaskren) February 11, 2017
Askren was responding to this tweet and made it pretty clear he had already accepted a bout with Santos.
How about @luissantosmma? https://t.co/PSTxHinKoO
— Juliana ? (@julianatlw) February 11, 2017
However, it seems there is some doubt over whether the Brazilian has returned his bout agreement with Askren suggesting that he was still waiting for Santos to sign. The two first met in Manila in 2015 but the bout ended in a controversial “no contest” after the challenger was poked in the eye.
They were supposed to rematch in Singapore that year but Santos missed weight and the bout was nixed at the last minute in acrimonious fashion. Since then, Askren has successfully defended the belt once while the Brazilian has won two fights out of two, making weight on both occasions.
Should the matchup with Santos fall through, then ONE Championship has an obvious alternative in the shape of Agilan Thani. The Malaysian has won six fights out of six for the promotion, is 7-0 overall and called out Askren after scoring a seventh consecutive stoppage in in Kuala Lumpur last Friday.