Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney made a curious headline earlier when discussing current Bellator welterweight champion, and restricted free agent, Ben Askren. Askren has interest from the UFC, of course, but has managed to be a homegrown talent in the same manner that current Bellator lightweight champion Michael Chandler is and Eddie Alvarez was. Both have been there since before the Spike TV purchase and were lined up as its signature stars on some of the bigger moments in Bellator’s relatively short history with Spike TV.
Rebney, speaking with ESPN, had the following to say about Askren and his current contractual status.
“I don’t think we’re going to make an offer at this point,” Rebney said to ESPN.com’s Josh Gross. “So I don’t see any reason to make anybody sit out.”
It’s a curious stand from Rebney, who took Eddie Alvarez to court and wasted nearly a year of his prime over contractual statuses following his free agency (and attempted Zuffa deal), for a fighter who’s been in Bellator for most of his professional career. Askren, an Olympic wrestler, has had a high profile for the company and was one of the most prominent faces featured early on in the Spike TV/Bellator relationship. So hearing Rebney claim they’re more than ready to see Askren head over to the UFC feels off in any number of ways.
Until Askren sees it in writing one imagines it should be considered just another business ploy from Rebney to lower Askren’s asking price from Zuffa; Strikeforce released Jake Shields from their matching provisions after his final fight under contract, costing him contractually when Zuffa came calling. With Bellator publicly proclaiming that if Askren signs elsewhere they’ll let him go one thing comes into focus: what he’d be offered (which Bellator can contractually match) goes down. But should Bellator let him go?
If they don’t want to try and be a significant competitor to Zuffa, which by all accounts they do, then letting him go to the UFC without a fight is a sign they’re going to be accepting second tier status sooner than later.
For all the bluster of Bellator trying to complete with Zuffa, including signing several prominent UFC fighters and going to PPV for the first time in November, letting Askren go without a fight isn’t a good sign for the company. Askren is an elite level welterweight, good enough to arguably be in the Top 5 despite not having a win against anyone in the Top 10, based on the eyeball test alone. He looks like an elite welterweight but we don’t know for sure.
His wrestling makes him a nightmare matchup for anyone in the division, of course, but Askren’s grinding style has earned him few accolades from many MMA fans because he’s not a finish prone fighter. His last two fights have been finishes, of course, but his career as Bellator’s champion has been filled with five round, grinding decisions that have done little to inspire the imagination of fans. Askren is higher level Jon Fitch to a lot of people and the comparison is accurate; he doesn’t have a bodybuilder’s physique and is just good enough at striking and submissions to balance out his elite level wrestling.
He’s a terrific, elite fighter who hasn’t quite been tested yet. This isn’t a case where he’s going to get a monstrous contract, like Hector Lombard, because Askren doesn’t inspire that same sort of fear that a pre-Bellator Lombard did.
“Lightning” had this air of menace to him that you couldn’t replicate; there was a feeling that he would do at Anderson Silva exactly what Chris Weidman did. The hype existed for a reason, even if in retrospect the string of knockouts was against subpar competition. Askren doesn’t have that air to him because his highlight reel isn’t nearly as volatile as Lombard’s was. Lombard may not have turned out to be the elite middleweight we thought he was but the doubts were always significantly higher than Askren’s currently are.
Lombard was always dependant on being able to land the big punch … and it turned out landing it on guys with good chins didn’t work out nearly as well as it was supposed to. Askren’s wrestling has led him into being an elite welterweight (at least we think) and it’s a transferrable skill into the UFC. One imagines that few in the UFC, if any, will be able to stay on their feet long enough to get into a kick boxing battle with the Hartland, WI, product.
Askren has dominated his way into the same discussions at welterweight that Lombard had at middleweight and that Michael Chandler is currently being discussed in at lightweight. For Bellator to really stand out, to not just be a place for relics of UFC fame and burgeoning prospects to make a living, it needs to make the same effort to keep Askren that it did Michael Chandler.
