Ben Askren faces his latest challenge against Nikolay Aleksakhin in the main event of ONE Championship’s Manila return
By Diego de la Paz
MANILA, PHILIPPINES (Eagle News) – Ben “Funky” Askren is putting both his undefeated streak and his welterweight title on the line against Nikolay Aleksakhin in the main event of ONE Championship: Global Rivals at the Mall of Asia Arena on Friday night.
Askren, a former Olympic freestyle wrestler for Team USA in the 2008 Summer Olympics, carries a 14-0 (won-lost) record in tow. A year earlier, he fought Luis “Sapo” Santos to a no-contest after an alleged eye-poke by Askren stopped the match.
He is set to face the Russian Aleksakhin, currently sporting a 17-3 (won-lost) card. He is just in his second match in ONE Championship following his defeat of Buenzorig Batmunkh via rear-naked choke submission in Beijing last November.
“I’m excited. To me it’s a fight. We go inside the cage for a fight, and so it’s all business for me,” said Askren. “Everyone thinks they can get the best of me, but they can’t. They got nothing on me in trash talking or in the cage.”
However, Aleksakhin has labelled Askren as “boring” and says his only strength is his wrestling during pre-fight interviews.
“He is a boring fighter to watch, with a very weak striking technique. I would like to play on that. I am a showman, I like exciting fighters and want to win beautifully,” said Aleksakhin.
In the co-main event, flyweight title contenders Geje “Gravity” Eustaquio of Baguio City’s Team Lakay faces Malaysian star Gianni Subba. Eustaquio, a former school teacher, stakes his 7-4 (won-lost) card against Subba (7-1), whose only loss came against Filipino fighter Eugene Toquero, also in Manila in 2014.
Also, Filipino-Australian bantamweight prospect Reece “Lightning” McLaren goes up against Tajikistan up-and-comer Muin Gafurov, while former ONE featherweight champion Honorio “The Rock” Banario takes on Vaughn Donayre in the preliminary bouts.
Photo credit: Peter Baltazar / Sports On Air