ONE welterweight champion “Funky” Ben Askren largely smothered his opponent Nikolay Aleksakhin over five rounds on his way to a unanimous decision in ONE Championship’s main event in Pasay, Metro Manila, on Friday night.
The American’s title was not on the line after Aleksakhin failed to make weight.
Former Olympic wrestler Askren followed his modus operandi, neutralizing Aleksakhin’s superior striking in the first two rounds by securing early takedowns, controlling from side mount and landing short elbows, knees and punches that did little real damage, but put him ahead on the judges’ scorecards.
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The fight opened up somewhat in the third round, which began with some crisp exchanges, before Aleksakhin took over, landing solid straight rights, left hooks, uppercuts and a head kick, even knocking out Askren’s mouthpiece. However, he appeared to exhaust himself with the rally, succumbed easily to a takedown and spent the remainder of the round smothered on the canvas.
At the beginning of the fourth frame, Aleksakhin again began finding a home for his straight right. The Russian then stuffed a takedown attempt to end briefly in top position. Askren landed his next takedown, but Aleksakhin reversed it with a sweep. However, Askren somehow managed to outwork him with strikes from his back, giving him an upkick to the face for good measure when the Russian elected to stand.
Askren wasted no time in securing a takedown in the final round. The Russian fought his way back to his feet to land more punches, only to be taken down again midway through the round. Finding his feet again, Aleksakhin attempted some last-moment heroics, but when the bell sounded, the fight had slipped away from him.
The unanimous decision win improved Askren’s record to 15-0-0, while Aleksakhin fell to 17-4-0.
In the co-main event, the Philippines’ Geje Eustaquio won a unanimous decision against Malaysian Gianni Subba, while on the undercard, Lowen Tynanes and Reece McLaren scored unanimous decisions against Koji Ando and Muin Gafurov respectively.
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