By Ivan Saldajeno
PASAY--Ben Askren banked on his prowess in the ground to beat Nikolay Aleksakhin via unanimous decision in the main event of One: Global Rivals at the Mall of Asia Arena early Saturday.
The match, relegated to a five-round non-title kind after the Russian challenger failed to make the 170-pound limit that would have made him eligible to fight the American One welterweight champion for the belt, appeared to be heading to a smooth win by Askren after he took down Aleksakhin a number of times in the first two rounds and controlled the match for most part of them.
But Aleksakhin finally found his striking targets in the third round and even delivered more solid blows to Askren in the fourth, setting up a potential upset.
Askren then went for an early takedown in the fifth period and once again showed why the ground is his zone as he said in a pre-match interview.
Askren, which regardless of the result keeps his belt due to the weigh-in issue, moved up to 15-0.
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