Ben Rothwell

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1 Profile
2 Early Career
3 IFL
4 Affliction and Adrenaline
5 Mixed martial arts record
6 Gallery
7 External links

Profile

"Big" Ben Rothwell (born October 17, 1981) is an American professional mixed martial artist training out of Miletich Martial Arts in Davenport, Iowa.

He stands 6 ft. 5 in. (196 cm) tall and fights in the heavyweight division at approximately 265 lbs..

Rothwell is an IFL veteran and currently fights for Affliction.

Early Career

Ben Rothwell made his professional mixed martial arts debut for the Freestyle Combat Challenge promotion on January 6, 2001. After 21 seconds of punishment, Rothwell's opponent, Rob Schinkle succumbed via TKO.

Rothwell picked up three more victories in his next three fights with no bout making it past 1:07 of round 1.

In August of 2001, Rothwell suffered his first professional defeat when he was defeated by decision by future UFC heavyweight champion, Tim Sylvia.

Rothwell rebounded from the loss and rounded out 2001 with an arm triangle choke submission win over Steve Hutson.

By the end of March, 2002 Rothwell had achieved four more first round victories which included a submission victory (broken foot) over future TUF 2 competitor, Kerry Schall.

In April of 2002, Rothwell entered a 16 man heavyweight tournament held by SuperBrawl promotion. The tournament was held over two consecutive days with the first day deciding the final eight competitors for day two.

Rothwell defeated Curtis Crawford via forearm choke submission in the round of 16 to advance into the quarter finals.

The next day, Rothwell defeated Kerry Schall in a rematch after Schall succumbed to a neck injury in the second round.

Scheduled to face Wesley "Cabbage" Correira in the semi-finals later that night, an injury to Cabbage forced a replacement in the form of previously eliminated fighter, Mike Whitehead. After two rounds, Rothwell found himself on the losing end of a unanimous decision to Whitehead.

After two more victories Rothwell was defeated again, this time by Ibragim Magomedov by TKO after 10 minutes of action. He followed this loss with a victory over Royce Louck and then another knockout loss to Carlos Barreto in July of 2003.

Rothwell fought twice in 2004, defeating Matt Bear and Jonthan Wiezorek inside of the first round.

In February of 2005, Rothwell was submitted for the first time in his professional career. Future TUF 2 competitor, Dan Christison tapped Rothwell with a kimura in the third round of their contest.

Following the fifth loss of his professional career, Rothwell finally began to string some wins together as he rolled off four consecutively by the end of March, 2006 which included a knockout victory over UFC veteran, Dan Bobish.

IFL

One month after the Bobish victory, Rothwell signed to fight for the International Fight League. In his IFL debut Rothwell faced Krzysztof Soszynski and defeated him by TKO just before time expired in round 1.

By the end of 2006, Rothwell had fought three more times for the IFL winning each bout via either knockout or submission in the first round.

To begin 2007, Rothwell stopped Matt Thompson at an IFL event held in Houston with punches in the second round.

Two months later, Rothwell faced his toughest test to date in the IFL when he was matched up against "Big Country" Roy Nelson. In a tight battle that went to the judges - Rothwell's first decision since 2002 - Rothwell was judged the victor on two out of the three scorecards giving him the win via split decision.

Rothwell made it 12 victories in a row with a second round submission win over Travis Fulton and a 13 second TKO stoppage of Krzysztof Soszynski in a rematch.

On September 20, 2007, Rothwell faced former UFC heavyweight champion, Ricco Rodriguez and defeated him via unanimous decision after three rounds. The victory marked his ninth victory and last performance in the IFL as he parted ties with the company shortly after.

Affliction and Adrenaline

Rothwell had almost a year off from fighting following his departure from the IFL. During that break he signed to fight for upstart promotions, Affliction and Adrenaline MMA.

He made his Affliction debut and return to mixed martial arts competition at Affliction: Banned on July 19, 2008. He faced former UFC heavyweight champion, Andrei Arlovski on the main card of the pay-per-view. Rothwell gave a good account of himself but was ultimately dropped and stopped by Arlovski in the third round of a great fight.

Rothwell bounced back from the Arlovski loss when he made his debut for Adrenaline MMA in December. He forced his opponent, Chris Guillen, to submit to elbow elbow strikes midway through the first round.

Rothwell will return to action in August at Affliction's third event, Affliction: Trilogy when he faces undefeated newcomer, Chase Gormley.