Ben Rothwell claims most heavyweights were on performance enhancing drugs because they didn’t like to train hard. Points to the current versions of Alistair Overeem, Junior dos Santos and Travis Browne to prove his point.
Less than one week away from the biggest fight of his career, Ben Rothwell says it’s no surprise he’s finally starting to appear in the heavyweight division. As ESPN reported, “Big Ben” claims a vast majority of the heavyweight division is struggling the new antidoping policy that has been established since last July, and he’s just benefitting from never taking any performance-enhancing drugs.
“Before USADA, I would say 80 percent or more heavyweights were on performance-enhancing drugs. Let’s just look at the facts. Bigger athletes don’t like to train the way we do. This sport is exhausting. Big guys come and go all the time because they hate the hard work. The ones who survive seem to think they need PEDs to cope with the training.
“And let’s face it. Being a big guy and ripped just doesn’t happen naturally. Everybody wants that ripped look. For a guy to weigh 265 and get that look everyone wants to see in a professional fighter, he needs help. I that’s another reason PED use is high at heavyweight. All divisions have it, but it has been bad at heavyweight.”
To support his claims, Rothwell just wants us to look at how some fighters used to look and fight before the USADA and how they are doing now.
“These guys are changing, they’re not the same. You see the Alistair Overeem and Junior dos Santos fight in December, even when they get on the scale, the way they fought, there a lot of changes. Travis Browne just struggled to beat a guy I trashed in two minutes. There a lot of changes going on right now and I’m excited to be a part of it.”
Ben Rothwell will look to improve his win streak to four in a row when he meets longtime veteran of the sport, Josh Barnett, at UFC on Fox 18, in Newark, New Jersey, on January 30. The event will be headlined by light heavyweight contenders, Ryan Bader and Anthony Johnson.
In 2013, Rothwell was suspended for elevated testosterone levels.