Back to the Drawing Board
He certainly has the cult of personality, the “mic skills” if you will, a mystery submission that no one can make heads or tails out of, fight changing power in both his hands and boatloads of confidence that he was indeed going to be the next UFC Heavyweight Champion of the world.
And up against Junior Dos Santos – who it was speculated was at his lowest ebb in the UFC and probably one punishing fight away from losing relevance in the title picture – Ben Rothwell’s camp was certainly making all the right noises leading up to their fight.
However, as the fight game proves time and again, unpredictability is interwoven with the very fabric that tailors the sport; perhaps not as much with the result in this case, but certainly through the manner of it.
While Junior Dos Santos resurrected his title aspirations with a dominant unanimous decision victory, it is back to the drawing board once again for Big Ben Rothwell.
Riding on a 4 fight win streak coming into this fight, it was expected that a victory here over a former champion in Junior Dos Santos would have quite possibly concretized the rising clamour for a title shot for Rothwell in the near future.
Now however, it remains to be seen if the burly, self-styled ‘King of Kenosha’ can recalibrate his compass and build yet another head of steam to make a run at the title; only this time, also ensuring that he doesn’t agonizingly fall at the final hurdle again.
