Ben Rothwell‘s stint in the UFC hasn’t gone the way he’d hoped. After a TKO loss to Cain Velasquez during his Octagon debut in October 2009, the former IFL standout followed it up with a unanimous decision win over Gilbert Yvel that cost him his ACL. Now, 15 months later, he’s coming into his UFC 135 match against Mark Hunt this weekend with a completely new mindset. As he told Ariel Helwani:
“I don’t even feel like I’m the same person now. I feel like in one year I’ve really made some major changes, and it’s gonna be pretty obvious September 24th what I’m talking about…I’m definitely coming into this fight [and] I’m 0-0. This Ben Rothwell is 0-0 coming in the UFC.”
In a way, this is the inverse of bringing back your old self. Rothwell isn’t looking to re-live the past. He wants to come back as a brand-new Ben — a clean slate, removed from all the real-life setbacks he’s suffered over the last three years. A fictional character, in other words.
Ben Rothwell‘s stint in the UFC hasn’t gone the way he’d hoped. After a TKO loss to Cain Velasquez during his Octagon debut in October 2009, the former IFL standout followed it up with a unanimous decision win over Gilbert Yvel that cost him his ACL. Now, 15 months later, he’s coming into his UFC 135 match against Mark Hunt this weekend with a completely new mindset. As he told Ariel Helwani:
“I don’t even feel like I’m the same person now. I feel like in one year I’ve really made some major changes, and it’s gonna be pretty obvious September 24th what I’m talking about…I’m definitely coming into this fight [and] I’m 0-0. This Ben Rothwell is 0-0 coming in the UFC.”
In a way, this is the inverse of bringing back your old self. Rothwell isn’t looking to re-live the past. He wants to come back as a brand-new Ben — a clean slate, removed from all the real-life setbacks he’s suffered over the last three years. A fictional character, in other words.
Is Rothwell the first fighter to look to the future by ignoring the past? Not at all. In fact, this “0-0 fighter” thing is becoming a running gag in MMA. Melvin Guillard claimed to be 0-0 after losing to Nate Diaz. (He’s 5-0 now, if you’re keeping score.) Tyron Woodley called himself 0-0 after his lackluster win over Nathan Coy. Phil Davis thinks of himself as 0-0 every time he fights, as does Johnny Hendricks. So why all the hate for official records?
In the case of Rothwell and Guillard, I think it shows a bit of disrespect for the fighters who managed to beat them. Cain Velasquez and Nate Diaz should be proud of those victories — but the implication is that those guys beat inferior, outdated versions of Rothwell and Guillard, and if they fought again today, well, it would be a different story.
Look, Rothwell isn’t 0-0, he’s 31-7. And he’s come a long way since the days of beating the crap out of fat kids at local shows for gas money, which is something he should take pride in. Still, this “completely different fighter” routine needs to be retired. Unless Rothwell comes out shooting fireballs from his eyes and levitating around the cage, it’ll always feel like an exaggeration. No fighter is exactly the same from one match to the next.
If you’re going to devote your life to MMA, you have to accept that it will be filled with ups and downs, and those downs are going to suck. But there’s no reset button on life, as much as you’d like there to be. So own it.
Got any other ideas for CagePotato Bans? Let us know in the comments section…
Want to make sure cash this Saturday betting on UFC 135? One word of advice — you won’t get rich betting on Jon Jones. According to the latest gambling lines, Jones is a 5-1 favorite or greater against Quinton Jackson on all the major betting websites. BetUS and Sportsbook.ag have him at 6-1, and Bodog is crazy enough to set the line at an alarming 7-1.
When the odds were first released four months ago, Jones was around a 3-1 favorite, but the vast majority of wagers have poured in on the young light-heavyweight champion since then, inflating the line astronomically. It’s a classic economic bubble — unsteady, unprofitable, and worth staying away from. The good news is, if you think Rampage has a chance to get his belt back, now’s your time to jump; a $100 bet would return a profit of $350-$450, depending on where you lay your money.
To be honest, every single fight on UFC 135’s main card is a blowout, in terms of gambling lines. The closest match is Nate Diaz vs. Takanori Gomi, and even there, Diaz is more than a 2-1 favorite — which might make Gomi the smartest ‘dog wager on the card. Check out the lines after the jump and let us know what you think.
Want to make sure cash this Saturday betting on UFC 135? One word of advice — you won’t get rich betting on Jon Jones. According to the latest gambling lines, Jones is a 5-1 favorite or greater against Quinton Jackson on all the major betting websites. BetUS and Sportsbook.ag have him at 6-1, and Bodog is crazy enough to set the line at an alarming 7-1.
When the odds were first released four months ago, Jones was around a 3-1 favorite, but the vast majority of wagers have poured in on the young light-heavyweight champion since then, inflating the line astronomically. It’s a classic economic bubble — unsteady, unprofitable, and worth staying away from. The good news is, if you think Rampage has a chance to get his belt back, now’s your time to jump; a $100 bet would return a profit of $350-$450, depending on where you lay your money.
To be honest, every single fight on UFC 135′s main card is a blowout, in terms of gambling lines. The closest match is Nate Diaz vs. Takanori Gomi, and even there, Diaz is more than a 2-1 favorite — which might make Gomi the smartest ‘dog wager on the card. Check out the lines after the jump and let us know what you think.
Main Card
Jon Jones (-500) vs. Quinton Jackson (+450)
Nate Diaz (-234) vs. Takanori Gomi (+220)
Travis Browne (-340) vs. Rob Broughton (+310)
Josh Koscheck (-450) vs. Matt Hughes (+400)
Ben Rothwell (-300) vs. Mark Hunt (+286)
Preliminary Card
James Te Huna (-150) vs. Ricardo Romero (+142)
Tony Ferguson (-300) vs. Aaron Riley (+283)
Tim Boetsch (-150) vs. Nick Ring (+147)
Eddie Yagin (-105) vs. Junior Assuncao (even)
Takeya Mizugaki (-190) vs. Cole Escovedo (+185)
Last week MMA Fighting reported that Paul Levesque, better known as Triple H, real life son-in-law of WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon, said he thought the UFC should evolve like the pro wrestling juggernaut has, “because quite frankly sometimes the fights are long and boring, guys lying around and sometimes the fights are fast and over in five seconds.”
Is “The Game” right? Does it matter? Before we pass judgment on his comments, let’s take a quick look at a few specific examples he gave for his opinion, then weigh the pros and cons of leaning too far towards Entertainment or Winning.
I did it at least nine times. How else would I inherit his empire?
Last week MMA Fighting reported that Paul Levesque, better known as Triple H, real life son-in-law of WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon, said he thought the UFC should evolve like the pro wrestling juggernaut has, “because quite frankly sometimes the fights are long and boring, guys lying around and sometimes the fights are fast and over in five seconds.”
Is “The Game” right? Does it matter? Before we pass judgment on his comments, let’s take a quick look at a few specific examples he gave for his opinion, then weigh the pros and cons of leaning too far towards Entertainment or Winning.
“[They should] give more of an entertainment standpoint. Give more form; they just have fighters who walk in in T-shirts and shorts and just stand there and then they fight and then they win and then they go ‘thanks, I’d like to thank my sponsors’ and then they leave. The whole world was up in arms when Brock was flipping people off and was cussing at the beer company because they didn’t give him any money. The whole world was talking about it. They couldn’t wait to see him get beat up. And then he did well, and he beat some guys and then people jump on his bandwagon going ‘Brock’s the greatest.’”
It appears that Hunter has taken a few too many chair shots over the years and has become quite confused. You see, his comments do not reflect a desire to see the UFC evolve — rather he would have them take a page out of Vinnie Mac’s script and add a bunch of fabricated drama to invoke human interest so the audience will become emotionally invested in the product.
His only valid point was the comments made about boring fights. Would you not agree? Dana White certainly does. Remember that interview with SI.com when they asked him if it’s a fighter’s job to entertain or just win fights.
Sure. But you’ve got to be exciting! If all we cared about was guys winning fights, you know how many wrestlers could just go lay on a guy? There are tons of wrestlers that could do that. I don’t know. Do you think we’d be talking about all these big plans and all the exciting things that we’re going to be doing if that was the case? I mean, that’s a pretty stupid question. If somebody really asks that question, you’d have to look at them and go, “Are you stupid?” Seriously, it’s a really dumb question.
Hear that Mr. Game? You’re preaching to the choir.
Why do most fighters fight? Money. How can they make more money? Winning, bonuses, and sponsorships. How do these streams of cash grow? Higher TV Ratings and increased PPV buy rates — essentially, you need more people watching your product. How do you get more people to watch your product? Be exciting, which means, according to the average MMA fan, you need to KO your opponent or get them to tap out. Whatever you do, it has to be fast-paced and explosive. Easy enough, right?
What happens if a fighter’s goal is solely to entertain the crowd and look for the Knockout of the Night bonus? We laugh at his attempts to defeat better opposition — guys who actually have a gameplan and well-rounded skill-set, and know more than what they learned in Mike Tyson’s ‘Punch-Out!’. Does this hypothetical slugger have a tendency to give us highlight-reel material from time to time? Sure. But you won’t see him in the main event anytime soon [Ed. note: well…] because although he’s an exciting guy to watch, his skills can only take him so far up the contender ladder. So much for that cash flow increasing.
Conversely, we have “safe” fighters whose only objective is to win, good, bad, or ugly…and it’s usually the latter two. When these guys fight, the numbers don’t suddenly jump off the charts. No one says, “I am pumped to see Jon Fitch fight again,” since the only thing he seems to care about is getting a ‘W’ and that paper. If he only understood that laying someone the eff out would garner him much more money than merely violating him for fifteen minutes, we’d all be winners.
So how do we deal with this contradiction? Should fighters fight to get a win at all costs, even if it means hearing a roar of boos as you smother your opponent for three rounds, or should you call your shot as you step up to the plate, swinging for the fences the entire bout hoping you drop him before he drops you?
So since Triple H brought it up, let’s talk about “evolution,” and what it means in this sport. The UFC has grown and adapted to the changes in our culture by adding rules, protective gear, and a referee. As the organization continued to grow, it became more corporate, breaking away from its blue collar, blood-thirsty past. Dana White and the Fertittas will continue to allow the UFC to evolve, just as the sport of mixed martial arts itself did. Remember when it was a fight between a karate guy and a boxer, fighting to see which style was superior? Now we have guys who can do it all — or at least all that is necessary to eke out a win — squaring off to determine which fighter, not style, is king.
In the end, the only thing that matters is that everyone is satisfied. White wants to be satisfied with the success of the UFC which is ultimately dependent upon its fighters, who want to be satisfied with what they are paid, which largely depends on the fans — who really just want to be satisfied with how enjoyable the fights are. So I just have to ask, ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!
(McGee vs. Yang, the middleweight showdown that UFC fans have been…wait a minute, remind me again who Yang is?)
Unless you’re one of those Bud Light ‘Battle on the Bayou’ contest winners, you’re probably not overly excited about Saturday’s “Shields vs. Ellenberger” UFC event on Spike. Boxing already has Saturday night locked up, with Floyd Mayweather‘s ring-return against 24-year-old WBC Welterweight champ Victor Ortiz, and it feels like UFC Fight Night 25 will be an overlooked prelude to next week’s Jones vs. Rampage card.
But let’s not admit defeat so soon. We’ll be liveblogging the Shields vs. Ellenberger main card on CagePotato.com starting at 9 p.m. ET, and it would be nice if a few of you showed up to keep us company. Could it be one of those “crap on paper, bonkers in reality” events? Who knows, but consider the following…
All Eyes on Jake: So far, Jake Shields‘s UFC career has consisted of an underwhelming (and razor-thin) split-decision victory over Martin Kampmann, and a rout at the hands of Georges St. Pierre. His dominant stretch of eight-straight stoppage victories in 2006-2009 are a distant memory in the minds of MMA fans, and he needs a dramatic win here, badly. Shields’s dance partner, Jake Ellenberger, has been spent years fighting for recognition, and with four straight Octagon wins over serious competition, he’s starting to get it. Stylistically, the fight might not be a barn-burner, but it could have career-altering implications for the headliners.
(McGee vs. Yang, the middleweight showdown that UFC fans have been…wait a minute, remind me again who Yang is?)
Unless you’re one of those Bud Light ‘Battle on the Bayou’ contest winners, you’re probably not overly excited about Saturday’s “Shields vs. Ellenberger” UFC event on Spike. Boxing already has Saturday night locked up, with Floyd Mayweather‘s ring-return against 24-year-old WBC Welterweight champ Victor Ortiz, and it feels like UFC Fight Night 25 will be an overlooked prelude to next week’s Jones vs. Rampage card.
But let’s not admit defeat so soon. We’ll be liveblogging the Shields vs. Ellenberger main card on CagePotato.com starting at 9 p.m. ET, and it would be nice if a few of you showed up to keep us company. Could it be one of those “crap on paper, bonkers in reality” events? Who knows, but consider the following…
All Eyes on Jake: So far, Jake Shields‘s UFC career has consisted of an underwhelming (and razor-thin) split-decision victory over Martin Kampmann, and a rout at the hands of Georges St. Pierre. His dominant stretch of eight-straight stoppage victories in 2006-2009 are a distant memory in the minds of MMA fans, and he needs a dramatic win here, badly. Shields’s dance partner, Jake Ellenberger, has been spent years fighting for recognition, and with four straight Octagon wins over serious competition, he’s starting to get it. Stylistically, the fight might not be a barn-burner, but it could have career-altering implications for the headliners.
TUF Winners Return: Due to poorly-timed injuries, Court McGee and Jonathan Brookins — the winners of TUF 11 and TUF 12, respectively — haven’t competed since last year. Nevertheless, McGee is still a solid favorite over Dongi Yang, the South Korean fight-finisher who has split a pair of Octagon appearances, most recently TKO’ing Rob Kimmons in March. I’m much more concerned for Brookins, whose first post-TUF bout will be against Erik Koch, the Roufusport-trained killer who has won Knockout of the Night bonuses in his last two fights. My money’s on Koch here, especially considering the way Brookins was gobbling punches against Michael Johnson — and I’d also call this bout an early front-runner for Fight of the Night.
The Crowd-Pleaser: The UFC knew what they were doing in booking middleweights Alan Belcher and Jason MacDonald to kick off the main card. Both guys go for broke in every fight, and have eight combined performance bonuses to show for it. With back-to-back stoppage wins over Wilson Gouveia and Patrick Cote in his pocket, Belcher returns to the cage after the eye-ailment that nearly ended his career. And speaking of miraculous comebacks, MacDonald is coming off his first-round submission win against Ryan Jensen, which followed his gnarly leg-snap against John Salter.
Do or Die for Dunham: Once an undefeated blue-chip prospect in the lightweight division, Evan Dunham now has his back against the wall following two straight losses — one a bullshit decision against Sean Sherk, the other an ugly TKO against Melvin Guillard. His next opponent, Strikeforce/TUF 13 veteran Shamar Bailey, is a hefty underdog, but he’s got the wrestling skills and power to make it a contest. Can Dunham get his head back in the game and take care of business? Because if he doesn’t, he’ll very likely be out of a job.
Don’t Sleep On the Prelims: The entire “Shields vs. Ellenberger” preliminary card will be streamed on Facebook.com/UFC, and Dunham vs. Bailey isn’t the only match to keep an eye on. Following his Fight of the Night-worthy loss to Yves Edwards in January, Cody McKenzie — and his dreaded “McKenzietine” choke — will return against Vagner Rocha. Plus, Saturday night will kick off with the debut of Jorge Lopez, a 22-year-old welterweight who took a break from high-school at the age of 14 to train with Wanderlei Silva — which sounds a hell of a lot cooler than what I was doing at 14.
Though I’ve never done a movie review before, I have seen two or three of them in my day, so when CagePotato.com and Break.com asked me to do a review of the new MMA-themed film WARRIOR, I told them I’ll check my schedule. Under ten seconds later I happily agreed.
With the bar on MMA-themed movies being set to an embarrassing low with such Academy Award-worthy gems as Fighting and Never Back Down, I didn’t really know what to expect from WARRIOR. I actually left Never Back Down out of embarrassment after the chubby sidekick told the main character, “You’ve gotta train Mai Thai.”
Regardless, I did my best Bangs impression and took my Shorty to the movies to go see Warrior. After sitting through previews that accused Billy Shakespeare of being a plagiarizing charlatan and dancing gerbils driving ugly cars it was Showtime!
Though I’ve never done a movie review before, I have seen two or three of them in my day, so when CagePotato.com and Break.com asked me to do a review of the new MMA-themed film WARRIOR, I told them I’ll check my schedule. Under ten seconds later I happily agreed.
With the bar on MMA-themed movies being set to an embarrassing low with such Academy Award-worthy gems as Fighting and Never Back Down, I didn’t really know what to expect from WARRIOR. I actually left Never Back Down out of embarrassment after the chubby sidekick told the main character, “You’ve gotta train Mai Thai.”
Regardless, I did my best Bangs impression and took my Shorty to the movies to go see Warrior. After sitting through previews that accused Billy Shakespeare of being a plagiarizing charlatan and dancing gerbils driving ugly cars it was Showtime!
I was fully expecting campy dialogue accompanied by terrible acting, and boy was I wrong. The plot made sense and unraveled well. All in all, WARRIOR really packs a punch (get it!). Tommy Conlon (Tom Hardy) is a former high school wrestling star and Marine with a past filled with demons, which eventually come out as the movie unwinds. After the death of his mother and going incognito for a number of years, Tommy returns to the home of his alcoholic and abusive father Paddy Conlon (Nick Nolte) to remind him that he’s a piece of shit while also asking him to help him train for MMA competition.
Unknowingly, his brother Brendan Conlon (Joel Edgerton), a retired MMA fighter with a failed stint in the UFC, is now a high school physics teach who spent all of his money on strippers and cocaine. Did I say strippers and cocaine? I meant he spent all his money on surgery for his ailing daughter who suffers from heart problems. Anyways he faces the possibility of the bank foreclosing on his home unless he comes up with some money fast.
Against the wishes of his wife he makes a comeback to the world of Mixed Martial Arts. Eventually there is a big-time tournament called Sparta with a winner-takes-all five million dollar purse. I’m not going to tell you whether or not they make it into the tournament, but they do. What follows is an epic mixed martial arts tournament that was a throwback to all my favorite movies from back in the day (all of which starred JCVD). The ending even got me a little choked up and made my girlfriend cry.
Although no cast will ever stack up to the original line up in Predator (body mass alone!) the main cast had a lot of depth and played their roles really well. Joel Edgerton played a real likable guy and I believe I noticed a little cauliflower ear. Tom Hardy was a BAD ASS anti-hero and had traps so big he could catch a bear. Nick Nolte was so grizzled and his skin looked like leather! His character was real old school and I believe he taught Chris Brown how to treat a woman.
I also thought it was pretty cool that for the tournament competitors they cast actual MMA Fighters Erik Apple, Nate Marquardt, and Anthony Johnson as well as Olympic gold medalist and pro wrestling superstar Kurt Angle playing a scary Russian stud which I know sounds corny and unbelievable but he makes it work by not talking (it’s true! It’s true). Other MMA fighters & personalities who make appearances include Roan Carneiro, Yves Edwards, Stephan Bonnar, Rashad Evans, Hans Marrero and referee Josh Rosenthal.
On a scale of 1 to 2, with 1 meaning it blew ass and 2 meaning it was a good flick, it is definitely a 2. So gather up your broskis and make the trip to your local theatre and see WARRIOR!!!
The story of the week, by all rights, should have been that the UFC triumphed again and put together a huge heavyweight fight at the end of the year … until Nick Diaz wigged out and went AWOL, missing two beauty pageants press conferences and losing his shot at GSP’s title and all the riches that would follow. Now every MMA site on the web has three stories about the man from the 209, and we won’t start talking about Lesnar-Overeem until mid-September at the earliest.
Since we’re all speculating, CagePotato thought we would pass on this delicious rumor: Nick Diaz will still be competing at UFC 137, against BJ Penn.
Dana White told MMAJunkie yesterday that he was working on finding an opponent to replace Carlos Condit, and he obviously had someone in mind, saying “if I told you what I want to do with that fight you guys would flip out, so we’ll see what happens.”
Diaz wasn’t born with enough middle fingers.
The story of the week, by all rights, should have been that the UFC triumphed again and put together a huge heavyweight fight at the end of the year … until Nick Diaz wigged out and went AWOL, missing two beauty pageants press conferences and losing his shot at GSP’s title and all the riches that would follow. Now every MMA site on the web has three stories about the man from the 209, and we won’t start talking about Lesnar-Overeem until mid-September at the earliest.
Since we’re all speculating, CagePotato thought we would pass on this delicious rumor: Nick Diaz will still be competing at UFC 137, against BJ Penn.
Dana White told MMAJunkie yesterday that he was working on finding an opponent to replace Carlos Condit, and he obviously had someone in mind, saying “if I told you what I want to do with that fight you guys would flip out, so we’ll see what happens.”
See, White has a real problem in Diaz. The last thing Zuffa wants to do is release him, since he would immediately sign a deal with another promotion like EliteXC or Bellator and be fighting again before Halloween. Despite all the backlash against Diaz in the last twelve hours, he’s still a massively popular fighter because of his style, and White has started to catch on to the fact that cutting fighters too quickly only makes his competition stronger.
Expect the UFC to take the stance that pulling Diaz from the title fight is sufficient punishment for his unreliability and general sketchiness, and for them to carry on with “business as usual” with Diaz. And the first step in that process will be the announcement that Diaz will have to face Baby Jay to start making amends.
A match between the two would be intriguing because both fighters have sharp boxing skills backed up with superlative groundwork, and both fighters have been criticized for inconsistency in the past. Of course, Penn is inconsistent in that you never know who will show up at a BJ Penn fight, while Diaz is not consistently a rational human being. The result: a fight every bit as unpredictable and competitive as Diaz himself.
Now if they can just get him back into the Octagon…
