Cain Velasquez Now Set to Fight Ben Rothwell at UFC 104
Following news earlier Thursday that Shane Carwin was being pulled from his UFC 104 matchup against fellow heavyweight contender Cain Velasquez to headline UFC 106 in November against champion Brock Lesnar, Ben Rothwell has been tapped to replace Carwin and take on Velasquez at UFC 104 on October 24 in Los Angeles.
Velasquez (6-0), a two-time All-American wrestler at Arizona State, followed up UFC knockouts of Brad Morris, Jake O’Brien, and Denis Stojnic with a unanimous decision over Cheick Kongo at UFC 99 in June. If victorious against Rothwell, Velasquez is then expected to fight the winner of the November matchup between Lesnar and Carwin.
Prior to being booked to fight Velasquez, Rothwell had been expected to make his Octagon debut against fellow newcomer Chase Gormley at UFC 104 in a fight that was originally scheduled for Affliction’s canceled “Trilogy” event earlier this month.
Rothwell (30-6), an IFL veteran who trains under Pat Miletich and Duke Roufus, had won 13-straight fights, including wins over Roy Nelson and Krzysztof Soszynski, before suffering his first loss in nearly four years at the hands of Andrei Arlovski at Affliction: Banned last July. Rothwell rebounded at Adrenaline MMA 2 in December, scoring a first-round submission of Chris Guillen.
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Pictured: Cain Velasquez
Tags: Ben Rothwell, Cain Velasquez, Chase Gormley
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Should be a tough fight for both guys. Rothwell has allways had decent striking, but not great and Valasquez might be able to hang with him on the feet. If not he can allways ground him and work for a stoppage or a grind a dec.
Hm, well that’s interesting. Cain goes from fighting Carwin to fighting Rothwell. I guess it makes sense because there really isn’t anyone else out there because the only other people that would have been a decent opponent for him are CroCop/ Dos Santos are fighting each other next month and Heath is taking a hiatus. I guess it makes.
I think cain got played dude. He just whooped on a contender in kongo who was higher ranked than gonzaga, who carwin ko’d. But i’m tired of talking about who should be fighting who and why. I’m not even a fan of cain. Is it too much to ask for as a fan, to see true champions crowned? By true, i mean fighting to the top and beating the champ. Basically earning your spot. I’ve always defended the fact that brock is a one of a kind physical specimen and that’s why he can hang with the best, but never that he was deserving of the championship. Just thought i’d say that before all this bashing started.
So again, like someone once told me, let’s leave the business to silva and dana and let’s enjoy all of these great matchups.
I like this better because, as I’ve said before, if you square Carwin and Velasquez off you’ve killed a title run for one of them. This way, you could very well get two good title fights in relatively rapid succession.
Yeah, that’s a good view of the situation but it is only dependent on the fact that Cain wins. In all honesty, I don’t Rothwell has much of a chance.
This, I believe, is the EXACT reason Joe Silva and Dana White ahve done this. We now have 2 title runs from 2 guys who are unbeaten…. perfect.
i said that exact thing an an earlier article, good thinking man
Dude how do you go from beating the potential #1 Contender in Cheick Kongo to going to a former IFL ok fighter like Rothwell…??? Man Velasquez got played. It’s simple though because they need someone to fight Brcok, Carwin is the clear favorite to fight him and will be a huge draw and they can get away with Velasquez-Rothwell by using the excuse that Velasquez is still green and needs more experience and try to make Rothwell seem “worthy” of fighting against a contender like Velasquez.
I don’t know if a win over Rothwell wil give Cain the nezt title shot after Carwin because Rothwell is making his UFC debut right?
I’m thinking that a win over Rothwell gives Velasquez the Couture-BigNog winner, or maybe the Mir-Kongo winner if the 102 winner gets a title shot if Lesnar loses?
I could easily see Couture getting a shot at Carwin if he beats BigNog in some sort of Captian America performance, just as I could see Mir asking for the Carwin-Lesnar winner when he submits Kongo.
Regardless, isn’t it great to be able to have these types of options and situational difficulties in the HW division?
While I think Velasquez was “done dirty” to a certain extent, this ultimately benefits his career, the UFC, and all of us as fans.
IMO Velasquez didn’t look that spectacular against the overrated Cheick Kongo, and Carwin looked like the Thing from the Fantastic Four when he landed that ever-lovin’ blue-eyed Sunday punch that launched Gonzaga halfway across the Octagon.
Velasquez gets to rumble Rothwell, and then call out the winner of Carwin-Lesnar, and gains the goodwill of the front office if he doesn’t b1tch and moan too much about being stepped over.
Which shouldn’t be too hard for him, because he’s got handlers, not to mention thousands of fans, to do that online and in the MMA media.
CLEARLY this isn’t an ideal situation. An ideal situation would have allowed for the HWs to sort themselves out and an obvious number one contender to emerge, but that didn’t happen. For the forst time in a long time there is a lot of drama and interest in the UFC HW division, not to mention widespread talent, so some “irregularities” in matchmaking are to be expected.
I guess this also addresses that nagging “undisclosed injury” Velasquez rumor coming out of Wikipedia earlier today.
Also, considering how many sketchy reports we’ve gotten lately, do we have some sort of official, and by that I mean from the UFC, confirmation that the Carwin_velasquez bout has been scrapped, in favor of Carwin-Lesnar and Velasquez-Rothwell?
Ha Ha,So I take it you don’t give Rothwell a snowball’s chance.
man you jst moved up a notch in my book, i completely agree with you that cain didn’t look very impressive against kongo who is way overrated ,and i say that about him all the time.
really good stuff jcohl
The one thing I would have added is, that not only is the HW division interesting again, but it is pertinent again. The best HW’s are in the UFC…
AND you didn’t mention Fedor once! I really think people are done with him…the tide (or court) of public opinion has officially decided he’s over rated and wants nothing to do with fighting the best in the world. GOOD RIDDANCE to you, Mr. Fedor!
Once again money and marketing win the day. Unfortunately for Cain he got the but end of this affair. Now even with a win it would seem that hes just “in the mix” once again along with the Nog/Couture winner, and Cro-cop/Santos winner.
Don’t forget the Mir-Kongo winner, if that fight actually drops.
And yeah, Velasquez got the short-term shaft for the Almighty Dollar, but if he keeps winning he’ll get his opportunity as the front office will sort of “owe him one”, and you see how well that sort of works out for guys like Rich Franklin when you do the promotion a solid, and/or take one for the team…
And where would Cain be if he had lost to Carwin?
that is just it man, that is just it, he would be nowere everyone would forget about him as a contender thats why shouldn’t of fought and i’m very glad it was cancelled
Yeah I agree.I’m glad it was cancelled also.That comment was kind of a rhetorical response to carls saying he would just be in the mix.
I actually like this match up, and the Lesnar v. Carwin match up. I also think Rothwell will come out on top, he too is a big guy and power striker, like Carwin, I’m just not sure how his takedown defense is. Only thing is it leaves me wondering where that leaves Gormley, maybe he can fight Stefan Struve at 105.
Yeah,I agree.I like both of those match ups better than Carwin vs Velasquez.Rothwell definitely has the experience advantage also.
Damn Justin, you were right on the money with that one!
http://www.fightersonlymagazine.co.uk/news/viewarticle.php?id=2954
Thanks John, but I was only close, right match up, one event off. Thanks for stopping by MMAFrenzy, though.
if you think rothwell will beat a top ten in the world in velasquez youre completely wrong mr harris, i assure you
I’ve been less than impressed with Velasquez, he’s beat top guys, but I have some questions concerning his chin and stand up. His recovery is great, but his chin is questionable.
i guess this will make the Heavyweight division better for a while. Looking at the overall picture having Carwin face off against Velasquez at this point would hurt the division more than help it because you spread the storylines. You have Carwin going for the title at the same time you have all these other fights like Mir-Kongo, Dos Santos-Cro-cop, and Nog-Couture so there is a lot to think about and lots of matchmaking possibilities so hey whatever right. I still wish that some sort of system would be made to determine nubmer 1 contenders that way whenever we see a title fight we know that the right 2 guys are in there. But i guess that’s asking too much.
I hope that Velasquez puts a hurt’n on Rothwell like he did Kongo but Rothwell is a talented dude who must be motivated to show poeple that he’s got what it takes to hang with the big dogs in the UFC.
If Carwin can’t stop Brocks takedowns then Brock will bust him up like he did Mir. I’m almost positive that Brock can’t take a solid shot from Carwin especially if it’s clean on the chin so we’ll see, this is Carwin’s chance to show Brock that “this is not the WWE”…because if he doesn’t he’s not gonna hear the end of it. If Kongo wins and Carwin loses they should match them up next that would be a cool fight and if Dos Santos somehow beats Cro-cop he should fight Velasquez if Vellasquez takes out Rothwell. I’d like to see Cro-cop vs Couture if they both win, what a better way for Couture to go out then to get dropped by Cro-cop’s lethal and deadly left kick.
Interesting. I am giving the edge to Rothwell, but Cain is nuts. I really don’t see a decision in this matchup.
whoever wins will get destroyed
I feel that Velasquez’s win over a top contender and big name like Cheick Kongo has given him even more confidence than he had before. He has momentum on his side for this fight, Rothwell kinda is coming in with a decent following with some pressure to do well being that he was the former IFL champ and is a known name and of course he can make a huge impact if he manages to take out Velasquez. Velasquez did show in the Kongo fight that he can get rocked and even dropped if caught with a solid punch, now i know that Rothwell doesn’t have the punching power that Kongo has but his stand-up is decent enough to give Cain some problems. Cain has more to lose nd less to gain from this fight. If he wins he was supposed to win anyway but if he loses he just lost to a guy making his UFC debut and there goes his title shot. Should be an interesting fight, i like Rothwell, but i’m rooting for Velasquez.
Velasquez didn’t look particularly well against Kongo. Sure he pound out Kongo for the victory, but he ate it along the way in the stand-up. Kongo hurt him on numerous occasions on the feet, but Velasquez has super recuperative powers. He should beat Rothwell. White and Silva put together another interesting fight. Provided Velasquez wins, I think he’ll fight someone else before getting a title shot.
Rothwell should start working on his takedown defense immediately, if not sooner. His best chance for an upset is to keep this thing standing, and try to land enough hard shots to unsettle Velasquez, and then move in for the kill.
Most likely we’ll see a feeling-out period, and then Velasquez will, or should, look to ground and pound out either a ref stoppage or a decision.
Also, with Velasquez’s athleticism, he should be training BJJ daily to take advantage of some of the division’s less-talented [in the submission game] guys, such as Rothwell…
quite true, but i actually beleive cain will win in standup in his kongo fight he got caught at the very start and wasn’t really right after that imo, but ya cain should be able to slam rothwell pretty easily and his slams are sick, i saw ufc99 live and everytime kongo got slammed you could actually feel it in your feet.
How can people say brock is not deserving of the championship, he s won both title fights, whoever wins deserves it as in any sport
I agree…sure Dana knew his fight with Randy was a money maker, but obviously there was something there besides the draw!! He’s looked absolutely unstoppable! He’s such a tough dude that it counters anyone’s martial art-of-choice, plain and simple. It is fighting, after all! That guy can fight!