On Thursday, 2008 Olympic wrestler Ben Askren will make his debut for Bellator Fighting Championships. In the first round of the welterweight tournament he will face Ryan Thomas. Prior to signing with Bellator, Askren had fought three times securing an undefeated record. He finished all of his fights before the two-minute mark of the first round. Let’s take a look at his MMA debut.

Ben Askren vs. Josh Flowers Headhunter Promotions – The Patriot Act 2/7/2009

Analysis
As you can see from this fight Askren should have a wrestling advantage over most of his opponents. In the early stages of his MMA career, he was training with American Top Team, but now he has moved to Arizona to coach the Arizona State wrestling team. He originally planned to train at Arizona Combat Sports, but their fighter Jacob McClintock is also in the Bellator tournament. Askren has not been working with a steady training camp and severely injured his hand wrestling in Belarus. Will his surprisingly advanced grappling game be enough to carry him to a victory over Ryan Thomas? We will all have to tune in to FSN to find out.

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