Ben Askren Beats Douglas Lima at Lackluster Bellator 64: Fan’s Reaction (Yahoo! Contributor Network)

On Friday, April 6, Ben Askren defeated Douglas Lima via unanimous decision to retain his Bellator welterweight title. Askren's victory topped off a rather dull main card at Windsor, Ontario.

Here are three thoughts on Bellator 64:

Askren wears down Lima

Askren physically dominated Lima despite being the smaller man in the cage. He rarely missed on a takedown, which negated any edge Lima had in the standup game. In fact, Lima was never really in this fight. He attempted a few submissions while trying to keep Askren in his guard, but that's all the offense he was able to muster. Askren basically held Lima down for five rounds while using enough ground and pound to keep the referee from standing them up.

Askren is one of the best wrestlers in the world and a very good welterweight. However, Bellator might have a problem on their hands with their 170-pound champion. He's a rather boring fighter. That can't be good for business at Bellator. If Askren doesn't start doing more in the cage than grind out decision victories, then fans are going to stop watching him fight. Bellator might be fine with Askren's performance now, but on a night when the entire card was rather non-eventful, the company could have used an exciting main event to spice things up.

Sandro edges Bezzera

Marlon Sandro might be in his second Bellator tournament final, but he certainly didn't compete like a champion against fellow countryman Alexandre Bezzera. Sandro looked tentative and slow at times, though he was able to land multiple leg kicks and a couple strong left hooks. He seemed concerned that Berrara might be able to counter his strikes, but I don't think that should have stopped Sandro from engaging his opponent.

If Sandro fights in the final like he did against Bezzera, I don't see how he wins the tournament crown. The two other semi-finalists, Daniel Strauss and Mike Corey, won't hesitate to take the fight to Sandro. He'll need to come out with a more aggressive game plan if he is going to stand a chance in the final.

Bantamweight blues

Both bantamweight quarterfinal matches were duds. Rodrigo Lima spent most of the opening match on his back working for submissions, but he did little else to compete with his opponent, Hiroshi Nakamura. There were a couple moments when it appeared that Lima might force Nakamura to submit. The problem is that Nakamura did an excellent job transitioning out of Lim's holds. Nakamura maintained top control for most of the fight, which is why he won, but this match set the tone for an entire night of snoozers.

The second bantamweight fight featured Travis Marx and Masakatsu Ueda. The more I think about it, the more I'm willing to concede that this match wasn't as boring as the night's opener, but it was still hard to watch at times. Most of the fight's highlights came in the first round when Marx was able to take down Ueda and land some solid ground and pound. However, that's about it in terms of excitement. Marx was able to pull out the decision victory, but he has a lot to prove in the semi-final round. Hopefully, the two winning fighters give better performances in their next fight.

Overall, Bellator 64 wasn't a lot of fun to watch. Yet I think the company deserves the benefit of the doubt from the fans. This was probably the first event Bellator has put on this year that wasn't very good. I'm sure Bellator 65 will help everyone forget about this rather dull fight card.

Derek Ciapala has been following MMA since the days when Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie fought in the octagon. You can follow him on Twitter @dciapala.

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