Cain Velasquez vs. Ben Rothwell set for UFC 104
A heavyweight match-up between Cain Velasquez and Ben Rothwell has been set for UFC 104.
The news of the bout comes on the heels of reports that Velasquez’ previous opponent for the event, Shane Carwin, is currently in negotiations to face UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar at UFC 106.
The bout between Velasquez and Rothwell has been confirmed through MMAFanhouse.com, stating that Cain has recently agreed to the proposed match-up.
Rothwell had previously been expected to face off with Chase Gormley at UFC 104 in a bout that had been transferred over from the abandoned “Affliction: Trilogy” event.
No news of a replacement opponent for Gormley has been reported at this time.
Velasquez will be coming back from the biggest win of his professional fighting career when he bested Cheick Kongo by unanimous decision at UFC 99, while Rothwell will also be coming off of a victory in the form of a TKO over Chris Guillen at “Adrenaline MMA II”.
Cory Brady is the managing editor of FiveOuncesOfPain.com.
| All posts by Cory Brady
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Well there ya go. Good matchmaking here by Joe; to give Cain a guy who has pretty good td defense and is a former IFL champion.
Shane and Brock here we go.
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After one of my messages yesterday about match making (tito vs coleman)I guees silva did listen. Brock vs carwin will be awesome.
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This will be a much tougher test for Cain than Kongo was. I think Rothwell wins this one.
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hmmmmm.. nice..
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fanoftna is right.
Rothwell has enough experience behind him to know what’ll win him a fight unlike Kongo who, for some reason, always wants to fucking wrestle now.
Great, great match-up.
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Cain will own Rothwell. Period. Ben might have more experience but he has nowhere near the talent that Cain has. Once it goes to the ground, and it will, Ben will be GnP’d to a bloody pulp. Ben’s only prayer is a miracle shot thrown from the nose bleed seats.
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Gurthee, I couldn’t disagree with you more. I don’t see any way Cain wins this.
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Good match-up. You don’t want to push Cain too fast. I think this is a good challenge for him.
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Very smart move by the UFC.
The Carwin vs. Cain fight would have knocked one of those guys out as a contender for Brock.
Now when (if) Cain gets by Rothwell, they can hype him up as the next challenger for Brock, assuming Brock gets past Carwin.
Of course, if Big Nog somehow beats Couture in very impressive fashion, he might get the next shot at Brock instead so Cain would have to fight one more guy.
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Agreed Fraz, except I think whoever the winner of Couture vs Nog is will be hyped up to fight either Cain if he beats Rothwell, or the winner of Carwin vs. Brock.
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I only wonder if the UFC would even want Couture or Big Nog to be the champ anymore. Not saying they are not deserving, but with as much young talent as they have maybe they want to go in another direction. Just putting that out there, I don’t necessarily agree with that
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I see your point. The thing is its almost always about money, and the only other HW in the world that can draw as many viewers is Couture.
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Couture and Nogueira will never be champs in the UFC again. Their time is over.
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hey – helterskelter –
never count Randy out because as far as i know he is the only one that has a chance at beating Brock besides The Russian Military Experiment (Fedor)
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WOW! Doesn’t this suck ass. Cain vs. Rothwell A good match-up? What ever you guys are smoking give me some. Cain is going to destroy Ben worse then Gegard blasted Babalu. They have done us all a great disservice in scrapping what would have been a great #1 contenders match and screwed Cain in the process. Nothing against Carwin he is a great fighter but they could have given Brock a sacrafical lamb to slaughter so we could see which Carwin or Cain deserved the shot first.
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Ben Rothwell is an excellent choice of opponent. We will see if Cain is all people assume he is. He struggled against Kongo so he needs to bounce back to prove he belongs in the top tier.
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MMA-LOGIC to say Cain struggled against Kongo is slightly harsh, he put him on his back and dominated him for three rounds. And that’s what he’ll do to Rothwell; Velasquez via Lay n Pray Decision.
Yeah Cain looks real mean when he’s hitting those bags hard and making animal noises, but against Kongo on the feet he looked weak as f*ck, lets be honest. And don’t be telling me that Kongo is a world-class technical striker – because he isn’t.
BigDave to an extent I understand your frustration; Velasquez vs Carwin was a very intriguing match up. However I massively disagree with your logic that the UFC should put together a bullshit main even heavyweight championship (Lesnar vs “sacrificial lamb”) in favour of a number one contender fight. I’d much rather have a slightly disappointing number one contender fight as we have here and a legitimate championship fight in Lesnar vs Carwin. I mean would you suggest they give to Lesnar to keep the Velasquez vs Carwin fight? Antoni Hardonk? Dan The Viking F*cking Evensen?
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Couldve theoretically gave Brock the winner of COuture and Nog in 6 months Shotokai.
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You know, I’ve been a fan since this was called street fighting (yeah, that’s what we learned how to do). One thing I’ve learned is that one guy who doesn’t have a great performance (Rothwell vs Arlovski) can’t be counted out on the basis of that performance. There are too many intangibles than simple MMAth on paper. Like Lesnar-Mir II. I knew that Lesnar would avenge his loss. I was actually surprised Mir had enough presence of mind left to pull off the submission the first time. People scoffed at me when I said that. Well, I was right. I think this will be a great match to watch, and I have no clue who will win this based on the fighter records this time.
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how many times did Cain get dropped by as shotokai stated non world-class technical striker (kongo)???? I like Cain. I hopeing he will look like his old self in this fight
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Cain and Carwin will someday be a money fight. Today is not that day. The idea of that fight seemed stupid to me from the get go. One gets the L and a blue chip prospect get the big L from another prospect… Easier for a newer fighter to bounce back from a loss from a qualified Vet. ( In my opinion)
and I have the same feelings as BigDave just reversed. I think Cain is going to get beat by Rothwell.
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this fight wont be competitive. Cain will mop the octagon floor with Rothwell.
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I say let brock destroy Cro-cop and let dos santos face rothwell so we can see cain vs.carwin. I was really looking forward to that fight but shit happens and now rothwell will get dismantled and carwin will get g&p’d till the ref steps in. both fights wont make it out of round 1.
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This is a bit of a side note but what about Gromley? I say have Dos Santos replace Rothwell. Gromley vs. Dos Santos or Gromley vs. Kongo, opinions please.
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Shoto you said he didn’t struggle and then said he looked weak as f#ck.
???
He got dropped 3 times, couldn’t finish Kongo and wasn’t happy with his performance so I think to say he struggled is fair, and less harsh than saying he is weak as f#ck…true?
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