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ONE FC: Askren vs. Santos REMATCH! Askren calls out dana & ufc fanboys for "self-serving bias," accuses Sapo of "playing up" eyepoke.


Hello Maniacs!

Don't mean to distract from such a good news parade of Jon Jones' felony h&r, UFC187/UFCBerlin injuries, MayPac almost killing boxing, and ref incompetence in Hunt/Miocic, but in actual good combat sports news: The year's most anticipated MMA rematch is heating up!

ONE Championship has wisely decided to strike while the iron is hot and is looking to book the Ben "Funky" Askren vs. Luis "Sapo" Santos rematch ASAP!

Last time we saw these two in a cage, Ben Askren was getting a damn near HAIRCUT from one of Sapo's soccerkicks (1:05 mark) in an exciting ONE Championship bout that was unfortunately cut short only 2:00 into it via unintentional eyepoke...

...and now that ONE is looking to book the highly anticipated Rematch soon (sometime in June or July from what I gather) Askren has already started the build up by calling out Luis "Sapo" Santos & dana white fanboys! Haha!

A few quotes from an excellent MMAjunkie article (that got Shared 2.2K times! Wow!) & SBNation's own MMAFighting article:

"They said he (Santos) had a corneal abrasion or something," Askren told MMAjunkie. "I’m not a doctor, but just being around this stuff for years, I feel like if he had to continue he could have. I think he maybe played it up a little more than he had to."

Askren on dana & ufc fanboys saying his status "took a hit" in some people’s eyes:

"I think it’s kind of a *self-serving bias," Askren said. "A lot of people, they want to listen to what UFC's dana white says, and want to think I suck. So, when I go two minutes, can’t get a takedown, but the guy lands one leg kick on me, then it’s like I got my butt kicked…but if that fight continues, there would be a much different outcome than what happened in the first two minutes."

(*self-serving bias is people's tendency to attribute positive events to their own brand but attribute negative events to external brands. It's a common type of cognitive bias that has been extensively studied in social psychology)

^ HAha! Askren served dana & ufc fanboys some shut up juice.

Thankfully a lot of comments seem to allude to fans realizing it was barely 2:00 into the fight when it ended prematurely...but hey Askren, remember you also almost got your head kicked into the 5th row from that ONE soccerkick there bud!

1 inch lower on that awesome soccerkick = LIGHTS OUT!

ONE Championship's superior Global Ruleset allows PRIDErules (kicks/knees to grounded opponents) and clearly do not favor wrestlers like UFC's unified rules do. I loved how this fight showcased that fact to the world.

The rematch will be highly anticipated now that people understand ONE's superior ruleset doesn't favor wrestlers like UFC's does and have seen that it's already a competitive fight besides that fact.

Askren himself even agrees it was a competitive fight...

"I know they’re already talking to him about a rematch, and for me the sooner the better," Askren said. "It piques people interest, because in my last few fights I have looked pretty untouchable. ‘Sapo’ was able to give me a little bit of resistance, and like I said I think that resistance would have faded, but I think it got people’s attention and there’s something there. I’m excited to kick his butt, because I definitely think he played it up a little more than he had to."

Just remember to duck on that next Sapo soccerkick eh Askren? LOL

Askren says he was actually enjoying the fact that he was in a competitive fight:

"I was almost enjoying the fact that he was giving me some resistance, because my last handful of opponents haven't really given me any resistance," Askren said. "So I was kind of liking the fact that I was in a little bit of a fight."

So was I, and so was everybody else. The rematch was pretty much immediately talked about with great interest shown already on all forms of social media. It will be a highly anticipated event, especially now that it's proven dangerous to Askren; and especially for hardcore MMA fans like us who had already known about Sapo Santos before from his AXSTV fights.

It could literally be one of the most anticipated & biggest events in ONE history. Askren agrees:

"If they promote it correctly, it's going to be one of the biggest fights they've ever done," Askren said of the Santos rematch.

Heck, I bet it'd be highly anticipated even if they promote it incorrectly because the fight practically sells itself from the first one, especially to the haters that want to see Askren KO'd, because he almost was! ;-)

The Rematch card is going to be BIG, and my hope is that ONE stacks it with their plethora of UFC-level talent just like they did for ONE's upcoming May 22 epic card (ft. Lowen Tynanes, Timofey Nastyukhin, Marat Gafurov, Shinya Aoki, Koji Ando, etc.) ONE FC 27: Warrior's Quest. That ONE is MUST SEE!!!

As always, THANKS for reading Maniacs!

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