Ben Askren had some strong words on Charles Oliveira‘s BMF title win at UFC 326.
The BMF title started with a war between fan favorites Jorge Masvidal and Nate Diaz, and also featured Max Holloway‘s iconic last-second knockout of Justin Gaethje at UFC 300. But when Holloway defended his BMF belt against Oliveira this past Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, their fight was lackluster.
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That’s because Oliveira (37-11 MMA, 25-11 UFC) took Holloway (27-9 MMA, 23-9 UFC) down five times and controlled him for over 20 minutes in a dominant decision win, which Askren doesn’t see as very BMF like.
“This is going to be wild coming from me – real wild,” Askren said on his “Funky and the Champ” podcast. “What if they did a three-takedown maximum on BMF title fights? Three takedowns maximum, or you only get a minute on top – to this effect. It was boring – terribly boring. Well, listen: Even if I was a grappler … well, it felt weird because it was a BMF fight.
“But No. 2 is Charles did not – it was kind of like the (Khamzat) Chimaev fight, where Charles didn’t take chances on top. He wasn’t really, really aggressive with it. He was winning the striking, but was he? This is why I did OK in striking in MMA. Was he winning the striking because the other guy was scared of the takedown? Like, that’s definitely a possibility because Max Holloway had zero ability to get up, 21 minutes on bottom or something like that? It was something crazy.”
Oliveira was the betting underdog going into the fight. He managed to avenge his 2015 TKO loss to Holloway.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Ben Askren suggests rule change after Charles Oliveira’s UFC 326 win
