I think it’s safe to say that Kimbo Slice would not be able to hang with the current top MMA heavyweights. Judging from his performance tonight, Kimbo has a long way to go, as he himself admitted. Luckily, Kimbo has Bas Rutten training him. Any of the top heavyweights such as Randy Couture, Fedor, Tim [...]
The source for this one is a bit shaky, but Fightline is passing along news that Ben Rothwell will indeed be taking on Andrei Arlovski at Affliction: Banned (July 19th; Anaheim, CA) according to a Sherdog thread where Rothwell personally confirms it. As Rothwell writes:
I tried to never say if i was/was not fighting AA but most all the forum took it that way, sorry i guess.
anyway I’m excited to fight a top10 HW, so thanks for the support, peace
CagePotato reported this rumor two weeks ago, but there has been no official statement from the organization yet. Speaking of Arlovski, the Pitbull’s presence in an upcoming Adrenaline MMA meet-and-greet could suggest that he will fight for that outfit as well.
In other non-UFC news…
— HDNet has agreed to broadcast Adrenaline MMA’s first three fight cards. The first one is going down June 14th in Chicago (headlined by Jeff Monson vs. Mike Russow), and the second is slated for September 6th in Moline, Illinois, and will feature Tim Sylvia and Ben Rothwell; yep, just like the first Affliction show. Personally, we wouldn’t book Tim to fight less than two months after throwing down with Fedor Emelianenko, but hey, we’re not Monte Cox.
New York — Fans unable to attend the first Adrenaline MMA event on June 14 at the Sears Center Arena in Hoffman Estates, Ill., will be able to watch the event live on HDNet.
Adrenaline CEO Monte Cox has announced a deal for the Mark Cuban-owned HDNet to carry the event’s first three shows live. “We [...]
The Affliction: “Banned” poster in its current form looks incomplete, but perhaps not for long.
May 19 to be be exact, which is just four days from now.
Former UFC champion Andrei Arlovski could ink a deal in this time with the new promotion and take on Ben Rothwell at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., on July 19, according to SportsIllustrated.com.
Here’s the snip:
“May 19 is the day when Andrei Arlovski could sign with Affliction, SI.com has learned. That is, assuming the UFC declines to match what is believed to be a deal that pays the former UFC champion in the low-to-mid six figures for the first of three non-exclusive bouts…. Should Arlovski and Affliction complete their deal, the Belarusian is expected to appear at next Tuesday’s press conference at the in Century City, Calif., to announce a fight against former International Fight League heavyweight champion Ben Rothwell.”
This speculation has been swirling for some time; however, now with this report it appears to give it a little more substance, and at the very least, provides us with a timeline of when we can expect an official announcement regarding the future of “The Pitbull.”
If indeed accurate, the addition of a bout between Arlovski and Rothwell will make this one hell of a fight card.
“I’m the CEO, so I’m going to make the matches. Well, they wanted a say. They wanted to be able to say, ‘we don’t like that match … we want to do something else.’ … I couldn’t make money with him. There was just no way we could make money with that kind of overhead. That became apparent. To take all of our investors’ money and put it around Fedor, it just didn’t make business sense…. I think people understand that I tried everything possible to make this happen. In business, sometimes it just doesn’t work. We bounced back, I think, very well. Getting Tim Sylvia is a huge coup for us. Without him, what would we have? We locked onto him. We locked onto Rothwell. Now, I actually feel better about where we’re headed than I did before. I would trade Fedor for Rothwell and Sylvia every day.”
– Monte Cox — CEO of Adrenaline MMA and former CEO of the now defunct M-1 Global — tells Brawl Sports that Tim Sylvia and Ben Rothwell are better for business than Fedor Emelianenko. The report goes on to reveal that Sylvia will earn more than $300,000 per fight under his new deal. Check out a video of Big Tim and Monte regarding their partnership after the jump.
That’s right, former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia, as well as former IFL heavyweight Ben Rothwell have both signed with the new Adrenaline MMA company (formerly M-1 Global). Here is the official press release from Adrenaline MMA:
Adrenaline signs MMA heavyweight standouts Sylvia and Rothwell
NEW YORK — Adrenaline MMA announced today that heavyweight stars Tim Sylvia [...]
Former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia on Adrenaline MMA:
“Adrenaline is a new promotion, but it allows fighters to fight for other organizations … that’s huge. I’ve got 3 to 4 years left and want to fight as much as possible, so this is the perfect choice for me at this time.”
Former undefeated IFL star Ben Rothwell on Adrenaline MMA:
“Adrenaline will give me the chance to take things to the next level. I’m ready to see how I fare against the best heavyweights in the world.”
– Recent quotes contained within a press release from the newly-minted Adrenaline MMA promotion that shares some thoughts from its two biggest stars, Tim Sylvia and Ben Rothwell. Both fighters train at Miletich Fighting Systems in Bettendorf, Iowa, and are managed by Adrenaline MMA chief, Monte Cox. Dumb, smart or just plain strange decision making going on here?
The eight greatest MMA fighters who have never won a championship or major tournament…
8. Gilbert Yvel (32-12-1)
There are two reasons “The Hurricane” hasn’t risen to the lofty heights of champion: his lackluster ground game and his ridiculous temper. Yvel has undeniable knockout power, particularly in his kicks and flying knees, and 28 of his 32 wins have come via KO/TKO. On the other hand, a quarter of his 12 losses came from well-deserved DQ’s. If he could have gotten out of his own way, this guy could have been on top of the world.
7. Yushin Okami (22-4)
Okami had a good shot to win Rumble on the Rock’s 175-pound tourney in 2006. As you’ll recall, he was staggered by an illegal kick from Anderson Silva in the first round, picking up a DQ win that allowed him to continue on to fight Jake Shields. But Shields beat Thunder in a decision (and ended up winning the whole thing), and Okami’s title hope disappeared. Now in the UFC, Okami is a top contender for the middleweight title — but good luck getting past the division’s undisputed ruler.
6. Jeremy “Gumby” Horn (79-17-5)
Although he has logged an impressive record in over 100 pro fights — beating guys like Chuck Liddell, Forrest Griffin, Josh Burkman, Dean Lister, “The Hurricane,” David Loiseau, and Vernon White — “Gumby” has never won the big one. He had two chances to pick up a title (UFC 17 vs. Frank Shamrock for the middleweight crown and UFC 54 in a rematch with Liddell for the light heavy belt), but was stopped both times.
I generally don’t check out the Sherdog forums much. Mainly because I generally think its filled with mostly 6 year olds with little people syndrome. But, out of sheer boredom, I gave it a look over and found a topic posted by IFL star Ben Rothwell.
Rothwell starts the topic as mainly an attack on all the ‘Sherdoggers’ who have been bashing him but the topic eventually evolved into almost a Q/A session, where Ben opened up quite bluntly on a number of issues.
One of the most intriguing things I read, was his viewpoint on Matt Hughes’ decision to leave the Miletich camp.
In response to the question, “How is the atmosphere over at MFS now with Hughes and Robbie taking off?” Rothwell replied:
FUCK Matt Hughes and he knows it, how he went about the gym and Pat Mileitich was complete BULLSHIT besides other things.
He would then clarify his statement in a later post saying:
He treats people around him poorly and has no respect. Really when I hear him talk about God and do this and do that and I love my wife, I want to puke
you (Hughes) couldn’t look anyone in the face anymore, and you fucked Monte (Cox) and Pat (Miletich) over and the fucking gym that MADE YOU
These are pretty damning words from Rothwell and definitely go against the reported “peaceful exit” between Hughes and the Miletich Camp.
The thread can be found here, if you can be bothered wading through some mostly pointless Sherdog posts.
Another thing I found interesting is how Ben stated he was “licking his lips for more” cage fights. Which could suggest his desire to end up in the UFC or at least another organisation that isn’t the IFL.
