Ben Rothwell is right down to throw down with anybody, together with legendary UFC knockout artist Mark Hunt.
Rothwell received the BKFC heavyweight title in devastating vogue this previous Saturday within the co-main occasion of BKFC KnuckleMania 5 at Wells Fargo Heart in Philadelphia. He did so by placing out the lights of Mick Terill simply 36 seconds into the primary spherical.
Throughout a post-fight press convention, Rothwell was requested if he’d battle Hunt – who known as him out on-line.
“Yeah, let’s do it,” Rothwell stated. “You suppose I’m going to say no? Let’s f*cking go motherf*cker. Let’s knuckle up.”
Rothwell and Hunt have historical past. The 2 fought in MMA again in 2011. That evening at UFC 135, Hunt defeated Rothwell in a unanimous resolution. Over a decade later, the 2 are actually out of the UFC. Rothwell has been energetic in bareknuckle boxing and is now BKFC champion, and Hunt has pretty remained inactive, together with his final battle being a victory in boxing again in 2022.
Rothwell is over the moon about his title win in BKFC. Though a prime contender for a few years below the UFC banner, “Large” Ben was by no means capable of get his probability to battle for gold.
“That was an enormous kick in my nuts,” Rothwell stated when requested about him by no means profitable a UFC title. “Everybody round me believed that I used to be going to win the belt. I used to be one of many prime ranked contenders for a while, I used to be on a four-fight wining streak, I took a extremely silly battle and went abroad and dropped a five-round resolution to Junior (Dos Santos), after which my life just about went to sh*t after that.
“I had a collection of horrible issues that came about and, you need to speak about despair and evrything unhealthy, yeah, I needed to battle out of a gap. The one cause why I bought right here is as a result of I do have psychological fortitude and I’m glad I bought to showcase it.”
For extra on the cardboard, go to MMA Junkie’s occasion hub for BKFC: KnuckleMania 5.
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