“It can’t just be wrestling all the time. You got to continue to work on your striking, get better at that.”
Ben Askren’s biggest downfall is that, once he steps into the Octagon, his opponents know exactly what he’s going to do.
That element of predictability cost him dearly this past Saturday at UFC 239, where ‘Funky’, a former Olympic wrestler, was knocked out just five seconds into his welterweight grudge match against Jorge Masvidal after being caught with a flying knee.
It almost cost him in his UFC debut against Robbie Lawler, too, as ‘Ruthless’ almost KO’d Askren with a highlight reel slam in the first round. Askren somehow clawed his way back into the fight and eventually submitted Lawler with a bulldog choke, but the 34-year-old was given no opportunity to recover against Masvidal.
Speaking to Submission Radio in a recent interview, two-time title challenger Stephen Thompson implored Askren to work on his striking and head movement to give his opponents something other than wrestling to think about once the opening bell sounds.
“Yeah, it could still be a possibility down the road,” Thompson said of a possible Askren fight (h/t Abhinav Kini of The Body Lock MMA). “Ben Askren, he is a very strong wrestler, probably the best in the division, I think. But then again, when you’re in the fight game like this, some of the other things you have to improve. It can’t just be wrestling all the time. You got to continue to work on your striking, get better at that. His wrestling and jiu-jitsu is ridiculous, but every fight starts on your feet.”
“You saw in the first fight [vs. Robbie Lawler], I thought he got knocked out, I thought it was over at first,” Thompson continued. “Ben Askren, he’s a tough boy. Golly, he’s a tough boy. That’s what wrestling does. When you wrestle your whole life, you got to be a tough dude to wrestle. I get most of my injuries wrestling. But he had that first fight in the UFC with Lawler, I thought Lawler was going to finish him. He got tagged up, I thought he was knocked out. Next thing you know, that controversial submission.
“But then, watching that, it’s like, you got to work on your striking. You got to work on your head movement, you can’t just walk forward. Masvidal just took better advantage of it, he knew exactly what he was going to do… If I had to work with him, I would definitely work a little bit more on his movement, his fighting stances, some head movement. Movement is everything when it comes to the fight game.”
Askren plummeted down the rankings after his loss to ‘Gamebred’ and the Roufusport product likely has a long road back to title contention.
Thompson, too, has his work cut out for him. ‘Wonderboy’ was knocked out by former UFC and WEC lightweight champ Anthony Pettis in a fight he was likely winning on points at UFC on ESPN+ 6. Thompson is currently ranked at #6 in the UFC’s official welterweight rankings.