Surging Rothwell continues quest for championship
NO DOWN TIME: Veteran set to return to action in April against former champ Junior dos Santos
With the forecast for the UFC heavyweight division cloudy and no assurances it will clear up any time soon, surging contender Ben Rothwell has opted to keep fighting.
Fresh off a second-round submission win over Josh Barnett a couple weeks back on FOX, the Wisconsin native with the four-fight winning streak is scheduled to jump right back into action in April when he takes on former champion Junior dos Santos in the main event of the UFC’s debut show in Zagreb, Croatia.
“Waiting 10 months just doesn’t sound like a great move right now,” Rothwell said, speaking with The Province during a news engagement in the Croatian capital. “Getting to fight one of the top guys is, especially a guy that has major wins over three guys that are ranked ahead of me and in title contention. I feel like this win is worth a lot, so here we go.”
Ranked No. 4 in the heavyweight division, Rothwell has been on quite a roll of late and accepted the match with dos Santos in hopes of keeping the ball rolling and using the momentum to continue to strengthen his case for a title shot.
“Stipe pulled out and I had invested a solid three-month training camp into that fight,” he said of his bout with fellow contender Stipe Miocic that was scheduled to take place in October. It was scrapped when Miocic was forced to withdraw with a back injury.
“He pulled out, I took my week or so break, but then we got the call for Barnett, so he was basically a six-month training camp. Now, this is like an eight-month training camp for Junior.
“With a win over Junior, I can see a title fight probably in September or October, so I’ve got to stick to this and continue this training camp. When it’s all said and done — by the time I fight for the title — it will be a oneyear training camp. I feel like that’s the right way to go about it; that’s me being a martial artist to its fullest.”
That’s a far cry from where Rothwell was a handful of years ago and a testament to the veteran’s perseverance and commitment to his craft.
At various points along his journey, inconsistency and an inability to implement what he was doing in the gym and in the Octagon on fight night had ‘Big Ben’ contemplating hanging up his four-ounce gloves. But he stuck with it and something clicked for him midway through the third round of his bout with Brandon Vera at UFC 164, which now stands as the first of his four-straight finishes.
Watching the fight, you can see it happen. A minute into the third round as the two reset in the centre of the Octagon, Rothwell fires off a headkick that is blocked, then begins shifting stances, trying to throw off Vera with his movement. It works and less than a minute later, the fight is over.
Rothwell, who was diagnosed with low testosterone following a horrific car accident when he was 17, was given a therapeutic-usage exemption for testosterone heading into the bout and was handed a ninemonth suspension after the bout when his levels came back higher than the allowable limit. Rather than let the forced time on the sidelines slow him down, the 34-year-old heavyweight used the time to keep improving and hasn’t looked back since.
“It’s a lot of me remaining humble and remembering about some of those dark times in my life,” Rothwell said of dealing with the praise and support directed his way now that he’s righted the ship and is in the midst of the greatest run of success of his career.
“I think upon them all the time. I think about the week of the fight (against Brandon Vera) — that was my back against the wall.
“Some of those were the lowest points of my life and that’s a lot to do with why I fight so hard and why I’m doing so well.
“I fought out of a hole like no one even knows. I was in the depths of hell and I’ve been reincarnated into something that the rest of the heavyweight division cannot deal with now.”
And with one more victory, the resurgent Rothwell is confident there will be no denying him a shot at the heavyweight title.
“I believe that after defeating Junior dos Santos, I’ll most definitely be fighting for the title.
“A five-fight winning streak in the division with all the momentum that I have going right now, I think I’ll have what I want and that’s everybody saying I deserve a title shot.”
E. Spencer Kyte is a mixed martial arts journalist and is the author of Keyboard Kimura (theprovince.com/mmablog), the MMA blog of The Province. Follow him on social media: @spencerkyte.