Ben Rothwell is preparing to return to the Octagon at UFC 211, where he will be taking on former UFC Heavyweight Champion Fabricio Werdum.
While Rothwell is focused on Werdum, he’s also angry with another former UFC Heavyweight Champion.
“I’ve had ten losses and I’ve never been able to get one of those back. Cain and Junior [Dos Santos] are two guys ranked in front that I’ve lost to and the two guys I could make that up with, it’s one of them,” Rothwell said on BJ Penn Radio. “If I only could fight one of them I think it would have to be Cain because that one really pisses me off. It pissed me off what he did with the title, where he sat on it for a couple years and really messed up the heavyweight division. I think he learned how to milk it. For him and his family and his finances, it was great for him, but it screwed everything up for the rest of us.”
Rothwell and Velasquez have fought in the past, as Velasquez defeated Rothwell by TKO at UFC 104 in October 2009. Dislike of the former heavyweight champion aside, Rothwell hopes that Velasquez’s recent health problems don’t affect him for too long.
“It’s really tough to say [what the future holds for Velasquez] but based on what we hear circulating, it doesn’t sound good. I don’t want him to leave because that’s a guy I’ve always thought I’d cross paths with again. He’s a big name and I’ve never got to fight any of the guys that I’ve lost to,” Rothwell said. “I heard he has to have back-to-back surgeries in under a year, it just sounds rough. I wish the guy the best and I hope he can come back. He’s obviously a warrior but I hear that it’s really bad and I don’t know what he’s got left. Only he knows that I guess.”
UFC 211 takes place on Saturday, May 13 from the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas with Stipe Miocic and Junior Dos Santos headlining.
