(Ben Rothwell: One of the few men on Earth who can mess with the Zohan.)
Aw hell, this never gets easier. We regret to inform you that Ben Rothwell — who most recently made Brendan Schaub see God at UFC 145 — has been forced to withdraw from his main card fight against undefeated heavyweight rising star Travis Browne at UFC on FOX 4: Shogun vs. Vera; an ankle injury was the culprit. Though there were early reports that Strikeforce veteran Devin Cole would come in on short notice to get demolished by Browne, it now appears that Browne is being moved off the August 4th event altogether, and the prelim match between Mike Swick and DaMarques Johnson will be promoted to the main card.
Matt Mitrione was also offered the chance to fight Browne at UFC on FOX 4, but he wisely turned it down. As MMAFighting reports:
Mitrione was once scheduled to fight Rob Broughton at UFC on FOX 4 before visa issues forced Broughton off the card…According to Mitrione, he was informed that his fight against Broughton was going to be scrapped from the card five weeks ago…Since then, he has yet to be booked on another UFC card. He was hoping to fight on Sept. 7 in his hometown of Indianapolis, but that card was recently canceled.
“Since I haven’t been booked,” Mitrione said, “I have been home visiting my children and not training in a way that would allow me to do two things: put on a fight that the fans deserve and fight a top-tier fighter like Travis Browne.”
Mitrione, who hasn’t fought since last October due to various injuries, admitted to thinking long and hard about the opportunity, but ultimately felt like he made the right decision.
“It’s inevitable that Travis and I will fight,” he said, “but he and the fans deserve the best me possible because that scrap will certainly have title implications when it happens.”