UFC heavyweight Ben Rothwell, a 43-fight veteran, scored the biggest win of his career when he knocked out ex-Strikeforce/K-1 champ Alistair Overeem at UFC Fight Night 50 last night.
While The Demolition Man was able to regularly land kicks and knees to the body, Big Ben was quicker to the punch and was somehow able to walk through some of Overeem’s best shots.
Just a couple of minutes into the fight, Rothwell scored with a big overhand right that caught “The Reem” behind the ear, dropping him to the canvas.
The newest addition to the Greg Jackson’s MMA camp was never given a chance to recover, as Rothwell pounced on him and unleashed heavy ground-and-pound before the referee waived the fight off.
Rothwell, who is not ranked in the UFC’s current heavyweight rankings (which will inevitably change on Monday), has now quietly won three of his past four fights, with each victory coming by way of knockout.
The fight was the first for Rothwell in just over a year—he was handed a nine-month suspension for testing positive for elevated levels of testosterone after a UFC 164 victory over Brandon Vera last August, per MMA Junkie.
Unfortunately for Overeem, he is now just 1-3 in his past four matchups, and all of those losses were knockouts.
While it’s feasible that the hulking Dutch striker gets one more chance inside the Octagon, his recent performances are a far cry from his 12-fight unbeaten streak between November 2007 and December 2011.
Heading into the bout with Rothwell, Overeem was a 4-1 favorite and the No. 7 heavyweight in the world, according to the UFC’s official rankings.
Following another brutal loss, will Overeem still have a job with the world’s premiere mixed martial arts organization on Monday?
John Heinis is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA editor for eDraft.com.
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