After Askren had already switched over to MMA, he came back and did two exhibition matches long before the Burroughs match. One was a folkstyle match against a world silver medalist, the other was a freestyle match against the 197 pound NCAA champ that year (Askren wrestled at 174).
He completely dominated both of them. It was amazing.
People on this forum make bizarre inferences. Once an all-time great college wrestler starts losing in a sport with striking, they claim he was never even that good at wrestling.
Ben Askren beat Jake Herbert in the NCAA finals in 2006. He competed in the Olympics in 2008. He beat Jake Herbert in exhibition in 2010. That was a long time ago.
He was an Olympic wrestler at one time. Nothing said can take that away from him. Obviously he was a great wrestler. What we dont know is how great of a submission grappler he was, especially with striking. Thats the question when comparing with Khabib. I think we can all safely say at his peak, Ben was a better freestyle wrestler.
Ben is 37 years old and has been years and years away from competitive wrestling. There is no way he could be top 5, top 10, top 20, top whatever in the US in any weightclass.
That’s not what I’m arguing about. I agree with everything you say. I’m arguing with the several people in this thread saying things like ‘Khabib beats Askren in everything but folkstyle wrestling’ and ‘it would be hard to find a sport where Askren beats Khabib’.
I disagree. If, and that’s a big if, Ben actually prepared for the US Open and competed I think he would be right in the top of the second tier guys. Randy Lewis made a comeback of sorts years ago 3 weight classes above where he was an Olympic gold medalist and over 50. He made the finals or semis of the qualification tournament and got smoked by a top 3 guy from WCAp Moza Fay. But he beat 2 or 3 guys to get there. Ben isn’t that far removed from being a very dominant wrestler. Could he give guys like Dake or Burroughs a run for their money? Probably not. But he could definitely beat guys on the rung of the ladder below them. Probably one guy he would have trouble with is Isaiah Martinez.
Here’s his match with Herbert, who was an Olympian in 2012 and world silver medalist in 2011. Askren was never noted for his setups or technique on his shot. That’s kind of what cost him vs Masvidal because even in wrestling if he could get to your leg at all, you were basically fucked. He had the best finishes on leg attacks because anytime he did shoot, he could pull the leg in and knew how to finish from bad position. Positions other guys might bail on, he knew how to turn bad positions into points as you’ll see several times where it looks like he should be scored on but isn’t. Askren was actually so dominant with how he wrestled that the NCAA changed the rules because of it. You can’t say that about many people.
Yea. And I would knock his ass out too if I had head gear & he wore 18oz gloves.
It’s MMA, not Olympic trials, Bjj world championship or Submission Underground. Could of should of.
Which rule was changed bc of Askren? Ben isn’t going to see 74kg ever again. With a replaced hip or hybrid replacement, he’s not getting into the condition it takes to make a run at the senior level. Herbert was always a wild card, would go from getting beat up in the room to placing at the worlds. Pendleton/Burroughs showed the game plan to beat Ben, he’s not beating the top 2%. But yeah, if you try and tangle on the mat with him (folk), high probability he’s outscoring you. Askren is not even coming close to taking out the top dogs on the national team. Sanderson might have a shot as of a few years ago, Taylor said Cael was still beating everyone up in the room.
Khabib’s striking is not that good (why are people talking it up?) and he never faced a truly skilled wrestler (or grappler, for that matter). Ben takes it.
This is ridiculous. Lawler sprawled and stalled and lit up Askren until the schoolyard choke. Street Judas knocked his predictable ass out in 4 seconds. Now he’s like 50 years old and has a hip replacement and haven’t won a fight in 2.5 years. There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.
They changed the rules about back exposure. Even if there’s no takedown if you end up in the so called “danger” position you can get 2 near fall counted against you. It’s to discourage the kind of things Askren would do and inspired. He’s not beating the top guys now but for anyone around 5th to 8th on the ladder he’s a problem.
