Ben Rothwell On Kenosha Shooting: I Was “Getting Ripped To Shreds By Both Sides”
Kenosha, Wisconsin is the place that Ben Rothwell calls home and it is also where the Jacob Blake shooting took place.
The UFC star has been preaching unity since the shooting, but the fighter feels like he has been getting ripped to shreds by both the right and the left since.
“I was kind of in the middle getting ripped to shreds by both sides, because I love people on both sides. And we needed to come together, not point fingers. That’s what Kenosha’s all about,” Rothwell stated at the UFC Fight Island 5 media day (via Gabriel Gonzalez of Cageside Press). “I feel like we’re getting through. We come in there to help each other, and it’s a beautiful thing. I wish more of the world could be like mixed martial artists, maybe we’d have more world peace in this place.”
Rothwell does return to action this Saturday Night at UFC Fight Island 5, facing Marcin Tybura in a heavyweight division affair.
One thing Rothwell believes is that the city of Kenosha is starting to come back together.
“I don’t want to say the community is shattered, because that’s how it felt at first,” said Rothwell “but I feel like things are coming around. People really got together to help each other, and I think people started to realize that most of the damage and carnage was created by outsiders. That realization came about when police were able to start releasing [the names of] a lot of the people arrested, they came from out of state, came from different cities. So people started to put the pieces together.”
Fightful has all of your MMA needs covered. Follow us on Twitter for updates, and subscribe to our YouTube channel for exclusive interviews, lists, news updates and predictions.
