Ben Rothwell vs. Chase Gormley Set For Affliction: Trilogy
Former IFL heavyweight champion Ben Rothwell (30-6) is set to square off with undefeated up-and-comer Chase Gormley (6-0) at Affliction: Trilogy on August 1 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
MMA Fanhouse confirmed the matchup at Wednesday’s Affliction: Trilogy press conference with Affliction Vice President Tom Atencio.
Rothwell won 13-straight bouts between 2005 and 2007, including notable victories over Krzysztof Soszynski and Roy Nelson, but suffered a third-round knockout to Andrei Arlovski at Affliction: Banned last July. He rebounded in December with a first-round knockout of Chris Guillen at Adrenaline 2 and will now look for his first Affliction victory against Gormley.
A winner of all six of his professional bouts, Gormley was last in action in May 2008 when he picked up a unanimous decision victory over Eric Pele at MFC 16.
Affliction: Trilogy is headlined by Fedor Emelianenko vs. Josh Barnett
Stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.com for the latest Affliction news and Affliction rumors.
[Pictured: Ben Rothwell]
Tags: Ben Rothwell, Chase Gormley
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I’m not really sure about this fight. Rothwell has everything to lose and IMO not a whole Hell of a lot to gain. As they used to say in pro wrestling, “who booked this crap!?”
If Rothwell beats Gormley, all he’s done is beaten a man who he has SIX TIMES the fighting experience over, not to mention his world championship with the IFL, and hasn’t fought in over a year. Big deal. At this stage of Rothwell’s career, he SHOULD be beating guys like this.
If he loses to Gormley, he sends out a signal that he’s back-sliding, or not professional enough to come ready to fight, or his judgement was poor and he underestimated his opponent.
Lord knows there is no shame to be had in losing to Arlovski, and one relatively safe comeback fight against Chris Guillen is understandable and in some precincts recommended, but ANOTHER fight against an unknown and essentially lightly regarded fighter shows me that Big Ben is getting some poor career advice, and has a shady sense of judgement.
Unless of course Chase Gormley turns out to be the next Shane Corwin, then the matchmaker looks like a genius…
I think this has to do, in large part, with the lack of depth in the HW division for Affliction. Sure they have a handful of the top guys… but beyond that they have basically nothing.
Yeah I agree,
Affliction is heavily reliant on a couple of HW fighters, and a major problem comes with that they keep pitting them against each other. Fedor v. Sylvia, Fedor v. Arlovski and how with Fedor v. Barnett if Fedor wins they are going to have to find somebody to be his next opponent. Giving Rothwell an ‘easy’ win might be setting the stage for another contender to Fedor, however we shouldn’t always discredit up and coming fighters. GSP, Arlovski, Rich Franklin are all good examples of guys who came in to MMA and really tore through some top competition for its time early on in their careers.