A heavyweight bout has been added to the UFC’s first Canadian event of 2012, as “TUF” 10 runner-up Brendan ‘The Hybrid’ Schaub (8-2) and Ben Rothwell (31-8) have verbally agreed to face one another at UFC 145.
The official news was announced Tuesday night at UFC.com.
Two heavyweights have verbally agreed to go to war March 24 in Montreal, Canada as Ben Rothwell will take on Brendan ‘The Hybrid’ Schaub.
UFC 145 is expected to take place on March 24, 2012 at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Only two other bouts have been announced at this time, a welterweight matchup between Rory MacDonald vs. Che Mills, and another heavyweight tilt between Travis Browne vs. Chad Griggs.
Schaub enters this fight on a loss, having a four fight win streak stopped by Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira last summer. ‘The Hybrid’ was knocked out by the elder Brazilian in the first round of their UFC 134 Brazil bout. Schaub’s win streak included victories over Mirko Filipovic at UFC 128, Gabriel Gonzaga at UFC 121, Chris Tuchscherer at UFC 116, and against Chase Gormley at UFC on Versus 1. This puts Schaub’s overall Octagon record at 4-2.
Rothwell also enters the match on a loss, but is just 1-2 in the UFC and is 2-3 in his last five bouts. The former IFL fighter fought just once in 2011 due to injuries suffered in June 2010 at UFC 115. In 2011, after his extended layoff Rothwell faced Mark Hunt at UFC 135 in September of this year, losing via unanimous decision at the Colorado event. Previous to that, he defeated Gilbet Yvel at UFC 115 in a bout that saw him tear his ACL as well as suffer a deviated septum. Rothwell debuted at UFC 104 against, now former, UFC champ Cain Velasquez by second round TKO.
Both men are in need of a win, Schaub to stay in the hunt for a shot at the upper tiers of the heavyweight division, and Rothwell in order to keep his job. This will be a solid standup fight and should be entertaining to watch.