Ben Rothwell Wants April Return And Top 10 Heavyweight

Ben Rothwell is currently rehabbing a knee injury that caused him to miss a fight with former UFC Heavyweight Champion Fabricio Werdum at UFC 203. Rothwell admitted that it's set him back quite a bit.

“My knee was just too much,” Rothwell told MMA Junkie Radio. “I’d been struggling with my knee for a couple years and I had been working through it. It became the type of injury where everyone, including my management and the UFC, saw my MRI and were like, ‘You’ve got to get this fixed.’ So I had to pull out and get it done. It wasn’t even from crazy training or anything. It was just my body – I’m 35 years old. It was a chronic injury that turned into an acute injury on top of it, and I had to get it fixed.”

When the injury is completely healed and Rothwell is ready to get back inside the octagon, the fighter has both a return date and opponent in mind.

“I’ve got to wait and see what happens with Cain and Werdum,” Rothwell said. “I guess I’m kind of seeing the winner is going to get pushed into a title fight. I’m not sure. It is the UFC, and you never know what they’re doing. But it looked like it was being built that way. If Werdum wins, as hard as I might try to get that fight, I don’t know if I’ll get it. If he loses, I’m off a loss and I think that’s very well a fight that could be made. Another reason is, it’s a fresh matchup. I know the UFC really likes fresh matchups, and he and I haven’t fought each other before. So I very much could see that could be a good a fight. I’m asking to fight about April, so if he fights on the 30th (of December), that gives him three or four months – which is pretty much par for him. So I hope that’s a matchup that happens. I guess we’ve just got to wait and see what happens.”

Fabricio Werdum and Cain Velasquez are set to clash for a second time at UFC 208, while Rothwell hasn’t competed since a decision loss to former UFC Heavyweight Champion Junior Dos Santos earlier this year.