In a battle of heavyweights trying to get back on track, it was Ben Rothwell defeating Brendan Schaub at UFC 145 on Saturday night.
The 30-year-old Rothwell moved his UFC record to 2-2 thanks to this victory. His career mark improves to 32-8. He likely needed this win to keep his job, as the company tends to frown on fighters who are 1-3.
Schaub’s string of bad luck continues. He was starting to make a name for himself in UFC, with four straight wins after knocking out Mirko Cro Cop at UFC 128.
Everything fell apart for Schaub against Anthony Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 134 last August—not only that, but he was knocked out in that fight. Nothing against “Big Nog,” he just isn’t the most prolific knockout artist, especially at this stage of his career.
Now, Schaub has to go back to the drawing board to figure out what he can do to get back in the swing of things. Despite being just 29 years old, he has just 11 professional fights under his belt, so his body doesn’t have the wear-and-tear of most other mixed martial artists.
For Rothwell, he got exactly what he needed. It didn’t matter how he got the victory, just that he got his hand raised.
It will be interesting to see where Rothwell goes after this victory. He was on the outside of the top 10-12 heavyweights in UFC before. Now, he has put himself on the periphery of those, admittedly very subjective, rankings.
Schaub is clearly at a crossroads. Assuming he gets another shot in UFC, the caliber of fighter that he will be taking on is not likely to be as high as it has been recently. It would give him a chance to win but doesn’t do much to help his progress as a fighter.
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