Ben Askren vs Robbie Lawler official for UFC 233
Ben Askren vs Robbie Lawler is official
The UFC’s first pay-per-view card of 2019 is starting to take shape and a potentially very entertaining welterweight title has been officially announced for the card. The UFC announced that former champion Robbie Lawler will welcome former ONE FC champion Ben Askren to the promotion at UFC 233 in January.
Askren came to the UFC when the promotion made their first ever trade in history by sending former flyweight champion Demetrius Johnson to ONE FC and in exchange acquired Askren. The 18-0 Askren comes into the UFC after a long lasting feud with UFC President Dana White but with that put to rest, he comes in to the promotion with quite a resume behind him.
Not only is he still currently undefeated but Askren is also the former Bellator and ONE FC welterweight champion respectively and is known for not taking much to any damage at all in his previous fights. Askren is known for his stellar wrestling background which includes gold medals in Olympic games as well as being a D-1 national champion in college.
During his time with Bellator, Askren set plenty of records in the promotion and left the promotion with an undefeated record. Askren has the most successful title defenses in Bellator history as well as the most consecutive title defenses in the promotion’s history as well.
In Robbie Lawler, Askren is getting an opponent who is ready for war and never backs down from a fight. The former welterweight champion Lawler is returning from a torn ACL he suffered during a five-round war against Rafael dos Anjos which he lost by unanimous decision.
Since losing his belt at UFC 201 to Tyron Woodley, Lawler has been working his way back into possible title contention but is 1-2 in his last three fights with losses to Woodley and dos Anjos but also has a win over Donald Cerrone at UFC 214.
In his fight against Askren not only will Lawler look to return from injury, but will also look to jump back into the welterweight title picture which has plenty of contenders awaiting the next title fight. Askren vs Lawler won’t likely mean the winner is in title contention, but it will establish the winner as one of the very best welterweights in the world, and that’s all Ben Askren has wanted to prove in his career.
UFC 233 takes place January 26, 2019 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California with tickets going on sale on December 7, 2018.
