Titan FC's Asa Ten Pow Is Ready To Prove His Transition To MMA Is Going According To Plan.
After a late notice replacement in his pro MMA debut and a very iffy no contest in his second bout, things haven’t gone exactly according to plan for Asa Ten Pow. But with Titan FC 76 right around the corner it’s looking like we’ll finally see just what Ten Pow is working with.
The transition from kickboxing to MMA is in full swing, and while he’s seeing the same level of dominance in MMA that he saw in kickboxing, the competition just hasn’t let the 32-year-old really spread his wings.
Ten Pow defeated 2-18 Earnest Walls in the first round in his debut. He followed it up with a no contest against Chris Roman, who received an illegal knee and was unable to continue. His fight with the boogeyman of South Florida, Ryan Kuse, fell through, as well, but with his third fight officially days away with no change in sight, it appears the dark clouds around his early run may be clearing up.
“This is a big step,” Ten Pow said. “I’m going against a guy who’s arguably favorable in the sport as far as the scoring criteria. He’s a better wrestler than me, he’s a judo player. Going into this, it’ll be one of my tougher tests in the MMA world.”
The frustration of his first three booked fights is enough to drive a guy crazy, but at 32 years old, is it possible the last six months have hindered Ten Pow’s progression in a sport he’s looking to climb the ladder in later in the game than most around him?
“It’s hard to say,” Ten Pow said. “I train specifically for opponents, of course, but right now I’m honing my craft and my style for this sport for MMA and I really want to present it at a high quality, so when it’s really great quality there’s going to be a contrast between fighters. The higher-level guys I’m still going to do the same thing to. It’s still going to look one-sided, but we’ll come back to that soon.”
Ten Pow assures the world that much bigger things are ahead. He’s already landed a few submissions in his amateur career, so don’t be too shocked if you see the striking specialist escape bottom position once or twice.
He’ll continue to become sharper and sharper on the ground, regardless of the level of the opponent, but he’s still a striker at heart and has a couple moves that are worth pretty big paydays up his sleeve.
“I have my traditional techniques that are, I would say, pretty applicable in MMA and the striking world, but I have some techniques that I hope there’s 50 Gs on the line when I land them,” Ten Pow laughed.
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