Whether or not it was the intention, Askren's approach v. Sapo was very interesting. It seems that very smart people are disagreeing on who was on their way to winning that fight and what the implications of what we saw are for Ben and his status as a top 10 fighter. FWIW, Sapo is 61-9 and was probably roided to the gills.
As I watch that fight, I notice a couple things: (1) Askren could not get Sapo down; (2) Other than a big leg kick, Sapo is doing no significant damage; (3) Ben is landing some weak overhands on the way in; (4) Sapo getting on top poses no threat to Ben.
If that fight were to continue, my guess is that Ben wears Sapo out, secures the takedown and beats him up. I also think it's a perfectly appropriate strategy. To me, it goes little to diminish my opinion of Ben, which is that he's almost definitely a top 15 fighter. If that fight continued and after the first round Askren worse Sapo down and beat him up (as I think he would have), I'd still argue that he's anywhere from 1-15 and we won't know until (if) he gets in the UFC.
Overall, I think his strategy was wise considering his opponent.
All the positives in favour of Ben are speculation as to what might have been.
However, all we got to actually see was a few min of failed takedowns by Ben and a strong leg kick by sapo 
Oontyex - All the positives in favour of Ben are speculation as to what might have been.
However, all we got to actually see was a few min of failed takedowns by Ben and a strong leg kick by sapo
You're absolutely right. All of this as speculative.
But again, all we saw was: (1) A good leg kick by Sapo; (2) Failed takedowns by Ben; (3) Nothing done with top control by Sapo; (4) Some weak overhands by Ben that did land.
Sapo was winning by positioning, but he wasn't beating Ben up. I'd still pick Ben in a rematch.
Again, i saw Sapo take a BIG deep breath right before the eye gouge.
Ben askren is going to do what ben askren does. Relentlessly pursue the takedown.
He's just not going to fuck around standing up. If he couldn't get Sapo down the entire fight, the entire fight would have looked like him working for takedowns for 5 rounds.
wiggum -This, sapo started strong but was fading and didn't look like he was finishing Askren in the early exchanges but all of this is speculative until the rematch which I agree Askren should win if he can impose his wrestlingOontyex - All the positives in favour of Ben are speculation as to what might have been.
However, all we got to actually see was a few min of failed takedowns by Ben and a strong leg kick by sapo
You're absolutely right. All of this as speculative.
But again, all we saw was: (1) A good leg kick by Sapo; (2) Failed takedowns by Ben; (3) Nothing done with top control by Sapo; (4) Some weak overhands by Ben that did land.
Sapo was winning by positioning, but he wasn't beating Ben up. I'd still pick Ben in a rematch.
Sapo did nothing to make me feel like he could finish Ben. Also Bens past fights shows he can and will continue to work for the takedown so I agree with op. Really we won't know until they fight to a definitive conclusion. The real problem I feel is people act like Sapo isn't legit because he's not in the ufc and with a Judo background he should be hard to takedown and he's shown legit ko power. In the end people just want to hate on Ben
I am not a Ben hater, but he really showed nothing in that fight. Cant wait for the rematch.
Stopped reading at "roided to the gills." How does such a dumb phrase become so popular? 
Sapo was exhausted and Ben was fresh, rendering the first 3 minutes of the fight as irrelevant. It made me no longer have a strong desire to see Ben fight in the UFC, but he was well on his way to beating up an exhausted, juiced Sapo.
CapnKindBud - Hahaha. You guys are definitely Askren nuthuggers if you saw anything except a one dimensional fighter exposed by a trial horse.
Askren is such an amateur on his feet, that he looked EXACTLY like Esparza looked when she fought JJ.
Except that JJ was and is highly ranked.
Santos isn't a top 40 fighter in his weight class.
Askren is completely lost if he can't take you down. He is barely top 40 himself.
He looked pathetic and wouldn't have won shit if he hadn't have cheated.
The ONLY reason that Askren poked Santos' eye was frustration.
You could tell by his reaction.
Did he stop and acknowledge the foul like most fighters do? Nope. He pulled a Faber and jumped the guy, acting as if he got that position fair and square. Notice Askren getting all mad because he wasn't allowed to ride his opponent after he gouged his eye.
As far as roids go, who knows. But I would have to bet that ANY top ten UFC fighter would squash Santos like a bug.
Askren is a fraud . And the most obvious sign of that is his fanboys telling you what would've happened if the fight would've went on. Lol blind fanboy love.
Askren got hit with one significant strike. It was the leg kick. Other than that, Sapo did no damage.
wiggum -Right, but you don't have to hurt a guy to dominate him. Sapo was dominating.CapnKindBud - Hahaha. You guys are definitely Askren nuthuggers if you saw anything except a one dimensional fighter exposed by a trial horse.
Askren is such an amateur on his feet, that he looked EXACTLY like Esparza looked when she fought JJ.
Except that JJ was and is highly ranked.
Santos isn't a top 40 fighter in his weight class.
Askren is completely lost if he can't take you down. He is barely top 40 himself.
He looked pathetic and wouldn't have won shit if he hadn't have cheated.
The ONLY reason that Askren poked Santos' eye was frustration.
You could tell by his reaction.
Did he stop and acknowledge the foul like most fighters do? Nope. He pulled a Faber and jumped the guy, acting as if he got that position fair and square. Notice Askren getting all mad because he wasn't allowed to ride his opponent after he gouged his eye.
As far as roids go, who knows. But I would have to bet that ANY top ten UFC fighter would squash Santos like a bug.
Askren is a fraud . And the most obvious sign of that is his fanboys telling you what would've happened if the fight would've went on. Lol blind fanboy love.
Askren got hit with one significant strike. It was the leg kick. Other than that, Sapo did no damage.
This fight may have ended up with whoever had better cardio winning.
Hopefully the rematch is not controversial.
Dive for telegraphed takedown, get stuffed. Clinch and get thrown. Repeat. Askren had no plan B.
muaythai1622 -.
I am not a Ben hater, but he really showed nothing in that fight. Cant wait for the rematch.
All we can go by is what we saw. And we saw a WW journey man stuff all of his takedowns, reversing a few and picking his shots on the feet.. Askren hit the ground in top position once, after the poke... Anyone guessing how it would play out is just talking meaningless conjecture, we all don't know what would've happened if there was no poke.
Two things I'm seeing a lot were that
1. Sapo was fading, in the three minutes I didn't see that. I re watched the fight, before the eye poke he wasn't breathing out of the mouth or dropping hands so I don't understand where that came from.
2. Ben someway or another wasn't trying? Or was comfortable or it was all part of his plan?... Just stop. In the limited amount of fighting we got to see askren failing and not having a plan b. He has landed those tds with ease and finished with light punches by then previously in his career. When he got stuffed or reversed he immediately went back to the same thing. Never tried to play guard and sweep for top and his strikes were hard to watch. I don't understand how he punches so slow and not powerful, it's almost odd how weak he punches when he's such a strong wrestler.
In closing, stop making up fake game plans you think Ben was following or being certain sapo would fade and just analyze that video for what it is. It was a look at the giant holes Ben askren has in his game.
Fabes -wiggum -Right, but you don't have to hurt a guy to dominate him. Sapo was dominating.CapnKindBud - Hahaha. You guys are definitely Askren nuthuggers if you saw anything except a one dimensional fighter exposed by a trial horse.
Askren is such an amateur on his feet, that he looked EXACTLY like Esparza looked when she fought JJ.
Except that JJ was and is highly ranked.
Santos isn't a top 40 fighter in his weight class.
Askren is completely lost if he can't take you down. He is barely top 40 himself.
He looked pathetic and wouldn't have won shit if he hadn't have cheated.
The ONLY reason that Askren poked Santos' eye was frustration.
You could tell by his reaction.
Did he stop and acknowledge the foul like most fighters do? Nope. He pulled a Faber and jumped the guy, acting as if he got that position fair and square. Notice Askren getting all mad because he wasn't allowed to ride his opponent after he gouged his eye.
As far as roids go, who knows. But I would have to bet that ANY top ten UFC fighter would squash Santos like a bug.
Askren is a fraud . And the most obvious sign of that is his fanboys telling you what would've happened if the fight would've went on. Lol blind fanboy love.
Askren got hit with one significant strike. It was the leg kick. Other than that, Sapo did no damage.
This fight may have ended up with whoever had better cardio winning.
Hopefully the rematch is not controversial.
Fabes: Not trying to argue that Ben was winning the fight. If the rest of the round when like that, it would have been an insanely easy 10-9.
Powerful DJH - All we can go by is what we saw. And we saw a WW journey man stuff all of his takedowns, reversing a few and picking his shots on the feet.. Askren hit the ground in top position once, after the poke... Anyone guessing how it would play out is just talking meaningless conjecture, we all don't know what would've happened if there was no poke.
Two things I'm seeing a lot were that
1. Sapo was fading, in the three minutes I didn't see that. I re watched the fight, before the eye poke he wasn't breathing out of the mouth or dropping hands so I don't understand where that came from.
2. Ben someway or another wasn't trying? Or was comfortable or it was all part of his plan?... Just stop. In the limited amount of fighting we got to see askren failing and not having a plan b. He has landed those tds with ease and finished with light punches by then previously in his career. When he got stuffed or reversed he immediately went back to the same thing. Never tried to play guard and sweep for top and his strikes were hard to watch. I don't understand how he punches so slow and not powerful, it's almost odd how weak he punches when he's such a strong wrestler.
In closing, stop making up fake game plans you think Ben was following or being certain sapo would fade and just analyze that video for what it is. It was a look at the giant holes Ben askren has in his game.
I actually disagree with very little here.
I agree that Sapo showed now clear sign of fading. You're right: my post is conjecture. But if I were going to guess, I'd say he would have faded.
I also agree that Ben wasn't trying to NOT get the takedown. He clearly was trying to get them and wanted them. My implication of a gameplan is to be relentless with TD attempts at all costs and even if they aren't successful, keep going with them.
Sapo was gassing ue to extreme effort to avoid takedowns, askren was goin to win 100%
wiggum -Fabes -wiggum -Right, but you don't have to hurt a guy to dominate him. Sapo was dominating.CapnKindBud - Hahaha. You guys are definitely Askren nuthuggers if you saw anything except a one dimensional fighter exposed by a trial horse.
Askren is such an amateur on his feet, that he looked EXACTLY like Esparza looked when she fought JJ.
Except that JJ was and is highly ranked.
Santos isn't a top 40 fighter in his weight class.
Askren is completely lost if he can't take you down. He is barely top 40 himself.
He looked pathetic and wouldn't have won shit if he hadn't have cheated.
The ONLY reason that Askren poked Santos' eye was frustration.
You could tell by his reaction.
Did he stop and acknowledge the foul like most fighters do? Nope. He pulled a Faber and jumped the guy, acting as if he got that position fair and square. Notice Askren getting all mad because he wasn't allowed to ride his opponent after he gouged his eye.
As far as roids go, who knows. But I would have to bet that ANY top ten UFC fighter would squash Santos like a bug.
Askren is a fraud . And the most obvious sign of that is his fanboys telling you what would've happened if the fight would've went on. Lol blind fanboy love.
Askren got hit with one significant strike. It was the leg kick. Other than that, Sapo did no damage.
This fight may have ended up with whoever had better cardio winning.
Hopefully the rematch is not controversial.
Fabes: Not trying to argue that Ben was winning the fight. If the rest of the round when like that, it would have been an insanely easy 10-9.
I hear ya. You and I aren't arguing. I don't know what would have happened. I can't even really predict it.
I wasn't interested in this fight at all. I thought Ben would dominate with wrestling.
I'm very intersted in the rematch now.
Fabes -wiggum -Fabes -wiggum -Right, but you don't have to hurt a guy to dominate him. Sapo was dominating.CapnKindBud - Hahaha. You guys are definitely Askren nuthuggers if you saw anything except a one dimensional fighter exposed by a trial horse.
Askren is such an amateur on his feet, that he looked EXACTLY like Esparza looked when she fought JJ.
Except that JJ was and is highly ranked.
Santos isn't a top 40 fighter in his weight class.
Askren is completely lost if he can't take you down. He is barely top 40 himself.
He looked pathetic and wouldn't have won shit if he hadn't have cheated.
The ONLY reason that Askren poked Santos' eye was frustration.
You could tell by his reaction.
Did he stop and acknowledge the foul like most fighters do? Nope. He pulled a Faber and jumped the guy, acting as if he got that position fair and square. Notice Askren getting all mad because he wasn't allowed to ride his opponent after he gouged his eye.
As far as roids go, who knows. But I would have to bet that ANY top ten UFC fighter would squash Santos like a bug.
Askren is a fraud . And the most obvious sign of that is his fanboys telling you what would've happened if the fight would've went on. Lol blind fanboy love.
Askren got hit with one significant strike. It was the leg kick. Other than that, Sapo did no damage.
This fight may have ended up with whoever had better cardio winning.
Hopefully the rematch is not controversial.
Fabes: Not trying to argue that Ben was winning the fight. If the rest of the round when like that, it would have been an insanely easy 10-9.
I hear ya. You and I aren't arguing. I don't know what would have happened. I can't even really predict it.
I wasn't interested in this fight at all. I thought Ben would dominate with wrestling.
I'm very intersted in the rematch now.
Absolutely. This is ultimately very good for business (for both guys)
Not sure where you guys get this "Sapo was gassed" nonsense.