Whilst UFC fans may look at Askren’s record of 1-2 negatively whilst at the promotion, he’d previously done incredibly well at One. Whilst at One, Askren went 18-0, won the Welterweight title and left as one of their most dominant champions ever.
From his 18 wins, 5 were from submissions whilst the majority were won on decision. Because of this he was often considered as a gritty points fighter rather than a submission specialist. In UFC his only victory came over Robbie Lawler which ironically was a Bulldog choke.
Reminiscing on Twitter, Askren released a video looking back at his career. Here he reflected on how his One contract was a great opportunity, how he didn’t regret stepping into UFC and generally he seemed in a happy place. However, Askren did state one thing he would do differently which was training BJJ from an earlier point in his MMA career.
The wrestler said:
“The one thing I think I would have changed if I could go back, I didn’t ever think I was going to fight until 2019,” Askren explained. “I never thought that would be the case. I thought I’d be retired way before. I never really had a great jiu-jitsu coach until really the end of my career when I found Marc Laimon. I really enjoyed him.
“But before that, there was really a mix of different jiu-jitsu coaches at [Roufusport] and I think that my potential to choke people out was untapped.”
“I was the best pinner in the modern era of college wrestling and I think if I would have went to work with say the [John] Danaher Death Squad or Marcelo Garcia, I could have really tapped into that at a much higher level,”
With this in mind, perhaps Askren’s career would have been more enjoyable from a submission perspective and he genuinely seems to enjoy training BJJ. There’s even the possibility he may have even fared better in bouts as well. With this in mind, we may still see Askren do more grappling matches in the future, but at age 36 time is running out for him.
