The best and worst from UFC on ESPN: Overeem vs. Rozenstruik

#2 Worst: Rothwell’s low blows ruin his fight with Struve

Ben Rothwell's win over Stefan Struve was marred by two bad low blows

Stefan Struve’s fight with Ben Rothwell was a strange one from the off; both men seemed content to club each other with big blows with little in the way of defense, but early on it appeared to be Struve who was in control mainly due to his kicking game. But that all changed due to Rothwell’s own kicking game – a kicking game that involved him landing a pair of brutal low blows that completely wrecked the Dutch fighter’s chances.

Did Rothwell mean to kick Struve in the groin twice? Most likely not; ‘Big Ben’ has never been a dirty fighter and looked horrified with himself, particularly when the second one landed, but the truth is that it was clear by the second low blow that Struve was in trouble, and so ref Dan Miragliotta should probably have stopped the fight and disqualified Rothwell even if ‘Skyscraper’ disagreed.

Instead, Struve continued, clearly hurt, and was TKO’d just moments later. Realistically nobody wanted to see a fight like this, and the whole thing left anyone watching with a sour taste in their mouth.