With his third straight title defense and 17th consecutive victory, ONE Championship welterweight champion Ben Askren had another relatively easy day of work.
Askren (17-0) dominated Swedish challenger Zebaztian Kadestam (9-4) in today’s ONE Championship 60 headliner.
“ONE Championship: Shanghai” took place at Shanghai Oriental Sports Center in China, and it streamed as an online pay-per-view in North America.
Askren, a former Bellator champion who’s No. 6 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA welterweight rankings, cruised with a ground-geared attack.
Things didn’t start well for Kadestam, a 26-year-old striker who has seven knockouts in nine career wins, and they never got much better. In the opening moments of the fight, Askren, a former NCAA Division I national wrestling champion and Olympian, went to his roots and scored a big takedown (via Twitter):
Askren’s domination, which came from mount and while affixed to Kadestam’s back, continued through the first round and into the next.
Ultimately, a barrage of ground-and-pound from the mount, which came late in the second round, forced a merciful stoppage to the lopsided fight (via Twitter):
Askren picked up his 10th stoppage in 17 career wins. And the 33-year-old, who’s previously been criticized for a grinding and not-so-fan-friendly fighting style, now has stoppages in six of past seven fights.
Full ONE Championship 60 results included:
MAIN CARD (Online pay-per-view, 7 a.m. ET)
PRELIMINARY CARD (Untelevised, 5:30 a.m. ET)
For more on ONE Championship 60, check out the MMA Events section of the site.
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