{"id":248457,"date":"2017-09-04T06:02:46","date_gmt":"2017-09-04T13:02:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=248457"},"modified":"2017-09-04T06:43:47","modified_gmt":"2017-09-04T13:43:47","slug":"ben-askren-gets-awesome-opponent-retirement-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ben-askren\/ben-askren-gets-awesome-opponent-retirement-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Askren gets awesome opponent for retirement fight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Funky&#8221; Ben Askren has long been regarded as one of the best welterweights outside the UFC, and perhaps the best fighter outside the UFC <em>period<\/em>. Over the weekend, in the main event of ONE Championship&#8217;s stop in Shanghai, the seemingly unstoppable wrestling specialist added to that reputation with <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ben-askren\/tko-one-fc-shanghai-china-welterweight-funk-champ-results\/\">a lopsided mauling of\u00a0Zebaztian Kadestam<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>As it turns out, his ferocious TKO of Kadestam will go down as the second last fight of his career.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/Jonnyboy_6969\/status\/903966678702272512<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/Jonnyboy_6969\/status\/903966478575296513<\/p>\n<p>Shortly after Askren&#8217;s big win in Shanghai,\u00a0ONE Championship Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong announced the details of his next fight, which will also be the last of his career. In this surprising retirement bout, Askren will take on a fellow grappling whiz in Japan&#8217;s Shinya Aoki.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fcsityodtong%2Fposts%2F1533073663421456&amp;width=500\" width=\"500\" height=\"204\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This veritable grappler&#8217;s delight match will occur at ONE Championship: Immortal Pursuit in Singapore on November 24. The card will also feature a massive rematch between ONE strawweight champ and burgeoning MMA superstar Angela Lee, and experienced challenger Mei Yamaguchi.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"730\" height=\"380\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-242796\" src=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Shinya-Aoki.jpg\" alt=\"Shinya Aoki\" srcset=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Shinya-Aoki.jpg 730w, https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Shinya-Aoki-300x156.jpg 300w, https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Shinya-Aoki-585x305.jpg 585w, https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Shinya-Aoki-390x203.jpg 390w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 730px) 100vw, 730px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Askren will enter his retirement bout with Aoki with a sterling 17-0 record (with one no contest). Over the course of his impressive career, he has medalled in both Bellator and One Championship, defeating game opposition in Lyman Good, Jay Hieron, Douglas Lima, Karl Amoussou, Andrey Koreshkov and Nobutatsu Suzuki. With his fighting career concluded, Askren will take up an executive role with ONE Championship.<\/p>\n<p>Aoki, meanwhile is, 39-7. In his last fight, he was <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/one-fc-2\/video-japanese-legend-shinya-aoki-gets-tkod-one-championship-defending-honor\/\">upset by Filipino star Eduard Folayang<\/a>, losing the ONE lightweight title in the process. Highlights of his dazzling career include defeats of Kazushi Sakuraba, Kamal Shalorus, Kotetsu &#8220;No Face&#8221; Boku, Antonio McKee, Rich Clementi, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Joachim &#8220;Hellboy&#8221; Hansen, Eddie Alvarez, Caol Uno, Gesias &#8220;JZ&#8221; Cavalcante, and many others. He has the opportunity to add another huge name to his list of victims \u2013 and reclaim ONE gold \u2013 this November.<\/p>\n<p>Who do you think wins this compelling Ben Askren vs. Shinya Aoki welterweight title showdown?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>BJPenn.com<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>\u00a0on 9\/3\/2017.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Funky&#8221; Ben Askren has long been regarded as one of the best welterweights outside the UFC, and perhaps the best fighter outside the UFC period. Over the weekend, in the main event of ONE Championship&#8217;s stop in Shanghai, the seemingly unstoppable wrestling specialist added to that reputation with a lopsided mauling of\u00a0Zebaztian Kadestam. As it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":219794,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10184,19776],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ben Askren gets awesome opponent for retirement fight | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ben-askren\/ben-askren-gets-awesome-opponent-retirement-fight\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ben Askren gets awesome opponent for retirement fight | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&#8220;Funky&#8221; Ben Askren has long been regarded as one of the best welterweights outside the UFC, and perhaps the best fighter outside the UFC period. 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As it [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ben-askren\/ben-askren-gets-awesome-opponent-retirement-fight\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"| BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-09-04T13:02:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-09-04T13:43:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Ben-Askren.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"730\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"380\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ben-askren\/ben-askren-gets-awesome-opponent-retirement-fight\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ben-askren\/ben-askren-gets-awesome-opponent-retirement-fight\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tom Taylor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87\"},\"headline\":\"Ben Askren gets awesome opponent for retirement fight\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-04T13:02:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-09-04T13:43:47+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ben-askren\/ben-askren-gets-awesome-opponent-retirement-fight\/\"},\"wordCount\":345,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Ben Askren\",\"ONE Championship\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2017\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ben-askren\/ben-askren-gets-awesome-opponent-retirement-fight\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ben-askren\/ben-askren-gets-awesome-opponent-retirement-fight\/\",\"name\":\"Ben Askren gets awesome opponent for retirement fight | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-04T13:02:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-09-04T13:43:47+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ben-askren\/ben-askren-gets-awesome-opponent-retirement-fight\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ben-askren\/ben-askren-gets-awesome-opponent-retirement-fight\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ben-askren\/ben-askren-gets-awesome-opponent-retirement-fight\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MMA News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Ben Askren\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ben-askren\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Ben Askren gets awesome opponent for retirement fight\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"description\":\"MMA &amp; 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