Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — Ben Askren is the ONE Welterweight Champion for a reason.
“Funky” Askren showed his mastery on the ground over Nikolay Aleksahkhin on the way to claiming a unanimous decision win on Friday night (April 15) at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Askren took the fight to the canvas as he asserted his dominance over his Russian foe in the first three rounds of the contest.
But Aleksahkin showed signs of life in the fourth round after landing heavy strikes on his opponent, punctuated by a thumping head kick in the 3:40 mark.
The Russian grew more and more into the contest after slithering out of attempted take downs and keeping the fight with both fighters standing up.
In the final round, Askren successfully took the hulking Russian down once more and dodged a last-ditch flurry of strikes on the way to the victory.
“He took everything and he kept fighting,” said Askren of his opponent. “I would’ve wanted to end it early and dominate him, but he is a tough fighter.”
In the co-main event, despite an injured shoulder and right hand, Baguio’s own Geje Estaquio found a way to put on an impressive showing against Malaysia’s Gianni Subba and claim a unanimous decision victory.
“Honestly, I had two injuries before the fight, the shoulder and the right hand.” said Estaquio before saying he did not want to postpone the fight.
Though Subba had the advantage in both height and length, it was Estaquio who was quicker to the punch and was able to prevent any decisive takedowns.
The Filipino rocked Subba with hard shots to the head, but could not score a decisive knockdown. But that proved to be enough for Estaquio, who won the favor of all three judges.
Fight results:
Ben Askren def. Nikolay Aleksakhin (Unanimous Decision)
Geje Estaquio def. Gianni Subba (Unanimous Decision)
Lowen Tynanes def. Koji Ando (Unanimous Decision)
Reece McLaren def. Muin Gafurov (Unanimous Decision)
Honario Banario def. Vaughn Donayre (Unanimous Decision)
Martin Nguyen def. Li Kai Wen (Stoppage Rd1)
Joshua Pacio def. Rubin Catalan (Stoppage Rd 2)
April Osenio def. Natalie Gonzales Hills (Arm bar Rd1)
Sunoto def. Burn Soriano (Stoppage Rd1)
Danny Kingad def. Muhamad Haidar (Stoppage Rd1)
