ONE Welterweight Champion Ben Askren will defend his title once again on April 21.
“April 21st in Manila is going to be a massive, massive event, we’re gonna have Ben Askren defending his title, we also have Eduard Folayang defending his title, and we’ll have a bunch of other Filipino superstars on the card,” Chatri Sityodtong, ONE chairman and founder, told ABS/CBN Sports.
Askren is one of the top, undefeated fighters in all of MMA. He has 15 wins with over half of his wins coming by TKO or submission.
Askren won the ONE welterweight title in Aug. 2014 by defeating Nobutatsu Suzuki by TKO.
Since winning the title, Askren has attempted to defend his title twice. He fought Luis Santos in April 2015, but the fight was stopped due to Askren accidentally poking Santos in the eye. The fight was ruled a no contest, and is the only blemish on Askren’s perfect MMA record.
Askren tried to defend his title last April against Nikolay Aleksakhin, but Aleksakhin failed to make weight making the fight a nontitle bout. Askren won the fight by unanimous decision.
Before joining ONE, Askren was the Bellator welterweight champion. In the promotion, he picked up notable title wins over Lyman Good, Jay Hieron, Douglas Lima, and Andrey Koreshkov.
ONE has yet to announce an opponent for Askren for his fight on April 21.
