MMA Fighting - The A-Side Live Chat w/ Ben Rothwell

Episode Date: May 1, 2020

For this episode, UFC heavyweight Ben Rothwell stops by to discuss some of the top story lines in the world of MMA. Some topics include Rothwell’s upcoming fight against Ovince Saint Preux on May 13, the state of the heavyweight division, his memories from his amateur career, the IFL, his favorite performances, and more. Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Follow E. Casey Leydon: @ekc Follow Ben Rothwell: @RothwellFighter Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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So download the app today and get $0-dollar delivery fees on your first three orders. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. Service fees exclusions in terms apply. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. We are live here on another episode of the A-Side Live chat is, of course, Friday. I believe it's May. Yes, May 1st. So first episode of May, joining me this Friday is A.K. Lee of MMA fighting, our cameraman and producer, Casey Leiden.

And joining us this week, we've had many UFC and non-UFC fighters on the show in recent weeks. I know we've been trying to do this three times a week during quarantine time. but we haven't had a fighter on a long time that actually has a fight scheduled since this pandemic started. So the man of the hours, of course, UFC heavyweight contender Ben Rothwell. Ben, before we get into the fan questions, I first have to ask, how has life been in quarantine for you up in the great state of Wisconsin? It's been a bit of a roller coaster ride just because I had to close my gym down and just seeing all the people that have been affected by it.

For me personally, it's not been so bad. Neo2 came out right about when the quarantine started, so I jammed out on that for two weeks. And my training has been pretty good. I have a personal gym that's in my trainers and everybody's been able to come to me. And I've been able to use the MMA gym. You know, there's a less than 10 of us.

So life's been somewhat normal. but outside of that, just seeing the grocery stores and the public and see where everybody is, and it's pretty crazy, you know, just this is something that's never happened in our whole history. Hope it, I hope you get the economy back soon. It's kind of scary. Now, you do have a fight lined up. Has it been, like you've mentioned, you're fighting, your life yourself has been fairly normal and you're in camp and you are able to train, but with everything you're witnessing going on outside of fighting, like you've brought up the grocery stores,

the real world is going through a pandemic, an MMA people may turn to for, what's the word, a distraction, but nonetheless a thing going on in the world. Has it been difficult for yourself to focus on a fight camp during this pandemic? The hardest part is I was supposed to fight one guy for April 18th, you know, in the middle of March, pretty much, I, I knew ahead of time that, uh, Bante was from New York and I called my manager and everybody and like, I don't think this guy he's going to be able to fight. And they're like, no, no, just, just stay ready, stay ready.

And then it can, you know, he couldn't fight. He eventually said, there's no way, New York's, like, shut down. I can't train. So I wasn't mad. I was just like, you know, going to find somebody. then UFC canceled all the events. It's just a lot of limbo, you know, but my manager was still like, you got to stay ready. They're going to try and do a show. And I'm like, how are they going to do a show in this? I got to call it. They were going to do something in May.

And I was matched up against Marie's Green. I was just like, whatever, you know, it's a fight. It wasn't exciting, but, you know, it's a fight. And it was cool at the UFC still going to try and do a show. So I was trying to, like, stay focused. So luckily I kept training, but that fight fell through. And then just, what, a week ago, matched up with OSP. At least I got a fight.

I think it's a bigger fight than the other two, but it's been a roller coaster ride. Am I fighting? Am I not fighting? Three different opponents. Where am I fighting? That was the biggest thing is where are these fights going to take place? Ben, how weird is it when you got the OSP call? Because you got the, you must have seen that name.

You made like, wait a minute, this guy isn't even in my division. Well, how did this name come up? So what was your reaction when you saw that it was a light heavyweight that was coming up to accept a fight with you? I already went through that with the first opponent from Valante. So I already went through all those emotions of these guys are moving up the heavyweight. They think the heavyweight suck or John Jones has beaten everybody running from me. So I kind of got over it. I see that guys like Daniel Cormier and, you know, even go farther back or Andy Couture,

I think they really open the door for guys in that weight class, that weight area to fight wherever, you know, up and down. Why do you think that is? You said that these guys think that the heavyweights suck. Why do you think that these light heavyweights are kind of coming up and thinking that, I don't know if some of you guys are going to be easy pickings or what's to deal with that? technically from what I can see it's what Dan would uh why uh Curtis blades is having so much success and I feel like it's a wrestling it's a ground it's a jihitsu thing I feel like a lot of

the heavyweights it's the old old rule of first heavyweight to get a takedown wins the fight that's that was the old same thing in early 2000 I don't know if much has changed I mean you got you got your couple of guys that are okay but I think for the most part it's a speed factor I feel like the guys at the 220, 2.30 feel like they have an advantage. They can go up or down. And they feel like, look what Rady Couture. You know what I mean? He was really good at getting his takedowns.

He'd wear guys down. He could beat the bigger guy. And I think some of that stands true. But you've got guys, you've got to be careful at heavyweight. And, of course, there's always the power factor. I think all the heavyweights down the board bring a danger factor that doesn't exist in any other weight class. So

Do you think Do you think someone like John Jones Like he keep you know People keep talking about him coming up Do you think he'll have a lot of different He himself has said he's worried about the stuff that happens at heavyweight So he I don't think he's overlooking the division But when you see someone like him

Do you think his skill set immediately translates And that he could you know Would be a favored fighter Up at Heavyweight I think wherever John Jones fights He's John Jones he's going to He's going to bring a level He's going to bring a

What's the word looking forward It's having a lot of hype. You know what I mean? The guy has skills that can win anywhere. I feel like a guy like Tony Ferguson, Habib, I feel like these guys could win. They could beat guys bigger than them. I feel like this kind of exists everywhere.

I think it's something Fador always showed over the years. It doesn't matter your size. You're a badass. You're going to win a fight. You know, if somebody pushes your wife down in front of you, are you going to go, oh, what's your weight class? And, you know, give me a couple weeks to get ready. No, you fight.

That's what a real fighter does. He'll win wherever against whoever it is. Well, I think even looking back on your career, I believe you have fights against Chris Ostrowsinski, Brandon Verr, like you brought up Valante. Like you specifically, why do you think they match you up with these light heavyweights that want to come up or even heavyweights

that eventually go back down? In the past, it just, I'm not sure. It just happened, circumstances. I think that's kind of what it is now. this right now especially they had to find fighters in the United States so that cut it down they had a list of six heavyweights

we talked to five of them they were injured didn't have enough time to get ready whatever it was Maurice took the fight then Maurice pulled out so I think it really just came down to OSB said he even had an idea it was like if you want to fight this is the fight

And he, I think him and Valante, I think it's a weight cutting issue more than anything. I think they're looking at, I just want to fight. I can, you know, I can fight whoever. I don't have to cut the weight. That's the biggest factor. Yeah, but we had Sarah Kauffman on a few shows ago, and she was saying she hopes everyone fights higher up, considering when you cut weight, you're probably more susceptible to bacteria, catching a virus or anything like that.

So I think I think you're right on the money with that. But of course, this is not our show. This is the fan show. I'm sure they have a million questions for Ben. I don't know why this popped into my head, but you fought an IFL, if I'm not mistaken, correct? For a lot of fights. And just coincidentally, there was a long thread of fans' memories from the IFL. So before we get into the fan questions, I want to ask you specifically because I have fond memories of watching the IFL.

What were some of your fondest memories from competing in that organization? 15 second knockout of I was hoping you would say that I was actually going to post a video and be like I taught Connor McGregor how to beat Aldo because it was very similar that was not my ticket into MMA but that got me back

into it after a while I love that promotion so much so I'm actually even more happy to speak to you this episode but Casey our producer Oh, wait, can I ask Ben, Ben, were you involved at all with the IFL rap? I can't remember the, I can't remember the video exactly, but I'm sure you've seen the IFL wrap. Were you involved with that?

Did you wish you were? That video so bad. I'm very thankful to not be part of it. Oh, no, I forgot about that. Oh, my gosh. But Casey, do we have the man behind the scenes? We have any questions for Mr. Ben Rothwell. Yes, that we do.

Actually, I'm going to go to a YouTube question we've got right now. From Aaron Jackson, Ben, are you going to hit the go-go choke in your next fight? Yes, you are famous for the go-go-choke. I believe you caught Josh Barnett and Matt Matreone with that choke. So talk about the choke and how it's set up and everything. And to answer Aaron Jackson's question, are you going to hit it in your next fight? It's all about opportunity, man. It's what presents itself.

You don't force a knockout. It happens. Chocolate L said it best. When you try to force a knockout, it never happens. So when it comes to you, you take it. The submission game's the same way. I don't force anything. I take what I'm given.

That's usually when I'm fighting my best. Casey, have you ever practiced the go-go choke yourself in Kent or while you're training? Right in these match right here? No, no. I'm way too novice for such an advanced move. I remember we actually interviewed you, maybe it was after your Barnett when I think we tried to ask you the same question. You were like, no, no, no, secrets. Those are secrets.

But I think you threw it on, I think, you might put it on aerial for maybe like half a second just to kind of give him a just a taste of what these guys are. They want a detailed explanation of how I do. What is piece is a guillotine. So that's correct. Go, let's keep thinking that. Have you seen anyone else use your signature choke since you've, since you started to implement it in the Octagon, like an opposing fighter that maybe you're watching a fight and he had an opportunity or if he actually hit it the right way? I see lots of opportunities, but, you know, nobody knows. Luis is something Luis came up with. Hickson Gracie asked Luis, what is this?

Wow. That's pretty awesome. Wow. So we have the Von Flu choke and the go-go choke face-n golf in the battle. Thank you, Aaron Jackson, for your question. I was hoping somebody would ask about that joke. Actually, I want to ask about the Von Flu choke to Ben. What makes OSP so successful in him landing that so often?

Is it just his opponent's just not paying attention, or is his body shape? Or what do you think it is? It's a big guy to have a shoulder point. into your throat. So we've had the, we've had the choke. We've been working on it. He gets people that commit, they don't know any better, and they try to go for a guillotine, or they put their arm around the back of his head. And if he locks it up, he says there isn't a way out. I would like to show him not in the fight afterwards. But it's brutal. If you don't know what you're doing, that joke's going to, it's going to end you.

He's a big guy that he gets up on his toes and he puts that shoulder into your throat. And if you don't know what you're doing, which if you look at his last, the four guys that he caught in it, they didn't have any clue. He had Glover, Txtera in it, pretty deep too, but Glover got his arm out and, you know, reversed it and ended up winning that fight. But even Glover for a second you could see, it was like a look of surprise. Like, how did I get you? Why am I here? How did I get here? So he's good at it. He's good. I see his setups.

Definitely something to look awful. Okay. All right. I've got a question. Let me, here we go. From Jones eats Cormier on the site. Don't call me Benjamin. I'm looking, I'm crossing off this question. That's a no, no. That's a big no, no. That's a big no. First certificate says Ben, so I got to wrap my name. Wow. Anyway, I forgive you. So, hello, Ben. Which MMA fighter did you always want to fight but never got the chance?

Oh, boy. Right now, right now it's steep. I was supposed to fight steep. He got injured and it didn't happen. It's a huge fight. It would have been a great fight done. He's kind of high-ranked now, so it's going to take some work for me to get there. That's the plan.

That was supposed to be on the Dublin card, if I'm not mistaken. Sure. Yeah. That would have been a banger. A lot of people say, like, Fador, as used to the go-to answer, I think, for a lot of heavyweights. Any of those pride guys like Fader come to mind, Ben, when you think about fantasy fights that could have happened? Sure. Fadour is a legend.

And had I beat Andrea Oloski in or affliction, I was going to get the fight. I was going to get to fight them. So that's my fault. I blew it. I blew it, man. And I choked against Andre two times. Were you at that fight, Casey? I was.

I was. At the Honda Center. That was when Fador fought Tim Sylvia? Yes, sir. Yeah. That was at that. So, Ben, were you already kind of sizing him up? I mean, most, I know you're a veteran.

You probably try not to look ahead of your opponent. But was there that party that was like, because you said you knew if you'd beat Narlowski, was there a little bit in your head thinking like, oh, man, what if, what if it happens? And how would I match up with Fedor? Yeah, I was part of the plan always is look at the top guys and that's who you've got to imagine you're fighting. Don't look at chumps. So Fador was always the, like the measurement stick, you know, if you have to fight Fador, how are you going to beat them? So you're always trying to figure that out.

And it was you got to be well-rounded, you know, and obviously I think one of Fador weaknesses is bigger guys that were able to pass his guard gave him a lot of problems. So I would add to. been well-rounded when I fought him. Do you put Fador at the top of the list of greatest heavyweights over? I know a lot of people kind of put Steep A and Kane and Daniel Cormey in that conversation, but for a lot, for pretty much a decade is Fador. Fador is above Kane for sure. Let's just, I'm not going to gun on the guy.

That's always pissed me off that he gave him so much hype. He fought Bigfoot Silva. He fought Junior DeSantos. fought Bigfoot Silva in a period of what? It's like five years. It's something just retarded. And he was the greatest heavyweight out. It just blows my mind.

Like, what are you talking about? Steve, to his credit, has defended the belt more than anybody. That's, you know, the guy is up there. He's definitely armed his dues. Steepi's on his way. He's, I think, on his way. He keeps going to be up there with Fador.

But Fador, but Fadar, you have to live in that time frame to understand that Fador was the, the man. You know what I mean? That was for that period of time, Negeril was the pride champion. You know what I mean? He was so, back then the pride fighters were the best,

so to speak. And Fador came in there and smashed him and smashed everybody and went undefeated for a long, long time. So for the amount of years that Fador held everybody off and was the champ and undisputed, you know, he's always going to, he should, yeah, definitely one of, you know, all times. but right now it's

I'd say between Fador and Steepay and where do you put where do you slot Daniel Cormier into that conversation I know he's had a lot of success of light heavyway too but he does have that knockout went over he's up there I mean he's up he's up number number three

it's a battle between him and Stepe if this third fight happens because they both got win on each other so Daniel Daniel's done some great things too I mean he's up there Ben I like that you gave such a fair objective answer because you fought cane. So I would have thought this was your

opportunity to go like, you know what? I shared, this is the guy I shared the cage with. This guy's the best. I don't think anyone would have blamed you if you had said that. I know some fighters, again, like to, like to say that they fought the best and you know, just kind of not worry too much about guys that they didn't have the chance of fight, but you kind of, you really gave a real answer there. You're welcome.

Thank you for the question Joneses, Cormier, and it's Ben, not Benjamin. Just a reminder. That's a warning. That's a warning, guys. Yes. Every question says Benjamin from here. Yeah. We're going to change your title, your graphic, too. Yeah.

Here we go. It's a question from YouTube comments. From Maria Gronen. After what fight were you the happiest and why? Interesting question. Knocking off Shazzyzinski in 15 seconds. Really? No, I'm just...

One of my interviews recently, I think before Stru, I said, I don't get happy very much. I do like knocking people out. It does make me. So, at what point in the process kind of falling on with this long as question, are you happy? Is it during, I don't know, it would it be during training? Definitely not during weight cutting. But I mean, if you say, you say when you knock people out.

But like, what else? In the fight itself, do you consider yourself to be happy at all? After the jobs don't. I'm getting my hand raised. That's the moment. That's all the blood, sweat, tears, you know, it's for that. No, nothing to get. I mean, I like Brian Schaub, but that was an awesome knockout because it was such a critical time for me.

I was in a really, really bad spot. Probably was getting in to get cut if I lost again. And not only was it a needed win, but, man, did the memes that came out after? Oh, I don't think he can tweet anything with that. without that gift popping up in his mentions. He could be, I'm doing a stand-up in LA, so-and-so, and like one of the top mentions is always the gift of you knocking him out. It's up there with whenever Bisman or Rock will tweet something,

it's always a battle between fans in the comment section. So you're in that rare group where no matter their opponent, even though you fought years ago, will be tied to them forever. And that's why makes me like him even more because he has all a reason to be hateful. And he's always super cool to me. He's always very respectful. And I got to get like, look with him, though.

I feel like he's being successful outside of fighting. So props to him, he's doing a great job. But that was a good one. Thank you for the question, Maria Grown. He's going to be like, how could you not talk about Alistar Overeem knockout? But I got moments, man. I got moments. So what were your, so?

If no one's ever watched, if no one's ever watched Ben Rothwell fight, and you need to give them three fights to really show them everything, like to define your fight career. What three performances or fights in general would you show? Alex Star Aubreem and Josh Burnett, or two, just those two. Shows them a mixed martial artist. I submitted the best, submission artist, a knocked out, a knockout artist.

Those are the two fights. Still the only fighter ever to submit Josh Barnett, which is pretty crazy. But that is the fact. When I retweeted this, there was a question and it goes, hey, you said we've seen nothing yet. Have we seen it yet? So I want to answer to the guy.

I said that after I submitted Matt Matreone. I followed that up with submitting Josh Burnett, which no one had ever seen before. So there you go, buddy. And that submission over Josh Barnett, didn't he just come up? He had that big win at Meta Morris, if I'm not mistaken. So he was like declaring himself,

the Metamores heavyweight champion of the world. And then right away, the turnaround got submitted by you. Did he ever declare you the Metamores heavyweight champion of the world? No. But it was Dean Lister, I think, too, right? Yes. It was a big win. But Josh's, I've always been super respectful with.

It was a tough fight for me because it was like fighting like an older brother. But once the cage door shuts, you know, ties turn red, get it done. Did you and Josh train together or just because you guys have been in the game so long? It's in the game so long. Yeah. Tim Sylvia trained with him. Tim Sylvia actually said we hadn't seen each other in a couple years, but Tim was like, oh, Ben's in trouble. Ben's going to get smashed right.

I was like, you fat fuck. Wow. That was a good F you to him too. Josh. the mate. Josh, no love to him. Like, they went and trained and apparently Josh submitted him like 15 times in like 10 minutes.

And so he was pretty scared of him. No love for the maniac? He had some good times, but I don't know. Mike, he said something. Mike Suss and Olovich. We just all trained together. He made some comments online. I'm not even a part of it.

And Tim jumps on and starts talking shit about me. I'm like, what the fuck, dude? I'm saying anything about you, Slop. We'll fall off of. Oh, my. Well, this is your chance to fire back.

I'm glad that we had you on because, yeah, you should be able to defend yourself. Is that someone you wanted to fight ever, like when he was still fighting? It did. It did. When did you fight? Oh, you didn't?

Oh, when'd you fight him? You had like two billion fights. Three round fight, man. Wow. Oh, yeah. 2001. I fought him. get this 2001

I fought him in the Quad Cities where he was training at the local nightclub that he went to and the three judges were his training partners thank you Cox it was it was Ben's fifth career

fight in Davenport Iowa August 2001 so don't blame you if you missed that one on the on the topology sheet Casey You know, I had to scroll so far down to see that one. That was, oh, my goodness. And the things weren't recorded well back then. That was my eighth pro fight, and they don't.

So I actually got a few more wins they don't know about. Really? Truth. How many of your fights do you remember? Do you remember your amateur fight against Mike Hall? I remember every single fight. You do? Wow.

You want me to tell you about that fight? Please, do. That was from, go for it. I come in. I'm 19 years old. No, no, I'm sorry. Sorry. My call was in Indianapolis or Fort Worth.

Right? Sorry. I'm just going to. I'm sitting here telling you I remember them all. I do. So it was a long drive because I was still in high school. That's right. It was my senior year.

I was still in high school. And Ron Farrowcloth and Pat O'Malley drove me. to it. I had a lot of my parents. They didn't know what I was doing yet. So we drive down there and we go to Wayans and I'm scared because this is my, get this, my second night of fighting. It's my third fight, second night of fighting. Jesus. So we get there and Mike Hall is weighing in and we weigh in and he's this big. He looks like Tank Abbott, but not as fat and he's tall as me. So he's a 20-year-old dude. It's pretty scary. You know, I'm, I'm in a hundred. high school. And we don't say anything. We weigh in and we go out to the parking lot and his brother

yells out the parking lot. You're going to lose. I went to the motherfucker. And I went my feet up until that's it. I ended up knocking them out in 17 seconds. Right? So 17 seconds. It just has a win. There were no actual no stop watching back then. It was 17 seconds knock on. I stopped around the cage. I stopped around the And then my reward was to fight this guy named Ron Fairclaw. So yeah, Ron didn't bring me because I had to fight Ron. So I thought I'm confused. I had to fight Ron that night. But at the time, Ron was a masonry worker, reided out of his mind.

And before this show started, Ron came walking in, concrete falling off of his boots, dude, whatever. And I go to my buddy and I go, I hope he's not. I hope he's not in the tournament. He was. And the guy he was supposed to fight ended up having like a heart attack seizure. So Ron got a buy. So I knock out my call and then had to fight Rock, which I, which I beat.

Yep, there he is. We ended up becoming training partners after that fight. God, man. When you're 80s, that man was scary. Let me tell you. MMA. I just want to say, unfortunately, Ben's fight. I was just quickly looking Ben's

fight with Tim Sylvia is not on YouTube. So we unfortunately cannot judge for ourselves and do a little robbery, robbery review of the fight. But I will definitely take Ben's word for it. There was something fishy going on with the judging pool. There was something fishy, but he won hopefully. Honestly,

he won the fight. I'll give him. I mean, you watch the whole thing. It just was stupid that I'm fighting a guy who's the judges or his training partners. It was just such a bad time. Bizarre. But guess on what they got paid for that?

15 minute war. 50 bucks. 500. A meal, a meal. Oh, I've heard that name in a while. You got 250 bucks and he gave it to me and he says, don't spend it all in one place. And you fought Travis Fulton, right? If I'm not mistaken.

Yeah, you're one of the 4,000 people that's fought. Can you believe he's still fighting? That is, well. I think his last fight was in 2019. Unreal. He's like a circus performer. Oh, yeah. There's an interesting article of him on the athletic where they interview him,

and he's talking about fights. He's had like five fights in one night. There's like a story where he's fought in the same guy like nine times, because whenever his opponent falls out, he calls this guy, say, hey, seven times the charm, man, come on down to the bar. And then they just fight there, and he wins every time. So that's going to show you Travis falling right there. But man, good Lord.

Fallen twice. Do you remember both fights? Yeah, the first one was in Racine, Wisconsin. I ended up putting him in a Camorra. And he, one of the rare, rare times, he didn't continue. He said I hurt his arm. And that wasn't normal for him. and then I fought him in the

IFL and I put him in the Kimura again and he didn't want to tap this time and I literally go, Travis, your arm's going to break, please. And then he finally tapped. Jesus. You said that, you said that during the fight? Like, you kind of like. Yeah, I was like, head, my face was right here

and I'm like, Travis, your arm's going to break, bro. I'm like, please. Wow. So you're a nice guy in there. Oh, man. But, I mean, he was like a, it's the Iron Man. You know what I mean? There is a respect.

I had him, I had him dead to rights. I knew he wasn't getting out. So I could say that. There's some situations you don't have, you just got to go for it. And the guy doesn't tap in time. It's unfortunate. But you got to go for it.

I had him in a situation where I was on top of him. He couldn't move. You know, I was in complete control. So I was able to do that. Yeah, his, his, his, His career record right now is 255, 54, and 10. He has 104 knockouts and 143 submission wins. Just save those numbers.

He only has eight decisions. At a 255 wins, only eight of them have reached the judge's scorecards. And Ben, like you, he said he can remember the details of like every fight. So I don't know what it is about you guys. You guys who go like 50, 60 fights. I have no idea how you or him even more. I don't know how you guys remember that stuff but I will say fact checking you are

correct just for everyone out there he did fight Travis Folden the first time in Racine Wisconsin. Wow Steel trap, steel trap I mean his is more impressive that's a lot more fights to remember he has more submission wins than fights I've covered live total

from sports week MMA I would ask Ben if he's if when he's said to John Anick that we have seen nothing yet. What did he end by it? He answered this, yeah. Also, how annoyed was he that Anick didn't let him cut his promo and walk away instead tried to ask him his bland question?

Listen, John Anick caught so much heat for that. Let's not bring him up no more. Let's put to bed. Let's let it sleep. There you go. Hope he answers your question, sports talk. All right. Sports would be.

from cam Kelly hashtag the A site at Rothwell Fighter Cowboy said he sometimes doesn't show him mentally come fight night Is that something you've ever experienced And is that feeling something you can train To overcome cheers? So yes For those of you who haven't heard

I'll set the scene a little bit Donald Sternery recently gave an interview to ESPN saying before his fight against Conradergan in January he was not mentally there quote didn't want to be there which actually echoed the comments that we had Brian Kelleher on the week after the fight he fought on the same card and also shared a locker room with Cowboy Soroni for that fight. And he said, Cowboy looked like he wasn't even there

when he was warming up. So Brian Keller called it in January. Cowboy Soroni confirmed it months later. But Ben, to answer this, Cam Kelly's question, have you ever experienced something like that before a fight? I've experienced something where I'm not, not myself. The last Andre Losski fight. You found out I had a lung infection. You know, oh, they're making excuses. I don't make excuses, but it is what it is. I got diagnosed with lung infection. They put me on all sorts of stuff after I had to get x-rays and MRI, my lungs, all that.

That wasn't myself. In the fight, I mentally wanted to be there, but your body is just not responding. And it's really, it sucks. So if something happens, you know, it's a scary place to be. You just can't be yourself, but you're in this cage. You got to do it. So I can definitely relate what he was feeling. You know, I don't know mentally, something could have happened.

Dude, it's such a dice rule. You do all this training and the night of the fight, something can happen. You don't put in the right vitamins and minerals. Your things don't function. Your body's low in magnesium. You know, that costs you a fight. It's definitely a scary thing to happen because you got to go in front of millions of people. and put your ass on the line.

But that question... Oh, sorry, go ahead. What, go ahead. The other interesting thing, Soroni said, was he kind of phrased it like, I wasn't cowboy that night. And a lot of fighters have sort of spoken of like in alter ego, you know, when fight night comes right.

Brandon Marino recently, you know, the assassin baby, he recently said like, oh, I'm Brandon Marino when I'm at home and when I'm training and when I'm going on. baby 2.0 and I just kind of I kind of tune out. Did you ever find any use for having sort of like a fight persona like to separate yourself from you know your your civilian life? You know, is there a dimest between Ben Rothwell and and Big Ben? It's like a yes, no. I kind of like I'm not all the time, but you can't be it. You can't do that because I'd be trashing society and I'd be in person. So I've laid it out to my heart rate. When my heart rate breaks a certain level, I'm very different.

By a fight night, once I get into the cage, I'm pretty sure my heart rate is around that. And I'm different. I'm speak differently. I'm just, my mind thinks differently. And I am like a different person. But I'm always, I'm always that person. I don't try to kid my, I don't lie to myself saying to split personality or anything. but there's like a switch.

I think you've heard it in the past. We see there was like a switch. It's an intensity. You know, right now everything's got to be calm. And like I said, I use the incident, something out on the street.

You know, something happens. Someone pushes your wife down in front of you. That switch, you know, there's like something goes on in your head. You're something else. You can't talk reasoning to me.

My, my objective, there's one thing that's going to happen. And when I am that person in the rain, that's when I fight my best. That's when the big Ben comes up. You had mentioned in your Andrei Olavski fight that you said, like you were mentally there, but your body,

physically you might not have been able to perform the way you wanted to. For those of us who have never experienced that, I mean, those remind me of what Tyra Woodley said after his loss to Kamar Usman, he said the whole time he was telling his arms, like throw a punch, throw a kick, go for a take time, but his mind and his body were not working together. Like he was basically watching himself telling him to do things, but his body wasn't reacting. So for people who have never experienced like that, what's it like being in a fist fight and your body not wanting, not being able to do what you want it to do?

A lot of bad emotions, let me tell you. Because you're here and you're a fighter, you can't. Anything that you do that results in, hey, give me a time out. Oh, let me fix this. No, the fight's over. You quit. So you just do it. You're just like, this sucks, this hurts.

I make the most of it. Because you're in that situation, you're in that moment. But it really sucks. I know exactly what Tyrone Woodley was feeling. And it can happen to anybody. It has. That's what MMA is. It's why Habib is so special.

To have a record like his, it just doesn't happen. And the majority of the sport, everybody takes at least a loss. because you have that night, the night where you just can't get your mind and body to cooperate. Could be a sickness. Could be a lot of things. Can you think of a night where that happened and yet you still pulled out a win? I would say to a degree, anytime the fight goes a little bit longer, some of that starts happening, a little bit of a battle. Say, Brandon Vero.

The second round I was kind of like floating around and not really being myself and then you see a trigger switch in the third round where I snap myself out of it. Same thing happened in the Steffin-Strew fight. I was basically, he was coasting to a win. People blame the kicks, man, rewatch or

what a bunch of nonsense. Whatever happened is a trigger switch and that last minute 20 was me being, mean, that's, that's how I need to fight. That's when I'm very, very hard to stop. Well, thank you so much for the question, Ken Kelly. That was a fascinating answer from professional. Can we talk about this real quick?

Oh, well, yeah. Yeah. A. Conn's, what's his name? Stephen. Stephen, Stephen, the honest guy. Stephen A. Smith, yeah. Yeah, Steve Mc Smith, no sports. He goes right away, he rebuttles and says, you all going to apologize now.

You all think I'm crazy. But this doesn't line up when I, when I, when I read that, I go, this doesn't line up with what you originally said, though. What he originally said was far more harsh and not anything related to what Cowboy. It wasn't like Stephen didn't say Cowboy doesn't look like he's himself tonight. Stephen said, this is an embarrassment. And he quit. I don't think he asked for forgiveness.

But dude, you're not even talking the same thing. Your first set of comments were an attack. And it wasn't any kind of forgiveness. It wasn't any kind of a, hey, cowboy doesn't look like himself. No, you call him a quitter. And you're saying things like, same things that, like, a lot of fighters took offense to is you don't know fighting. And you don't know what it's like to be in that cage. So don't act like you know what it's like to be in the cage.

You don't. Until you get in the cage and you understand what that real true pressure is like, having someone across from you that's trying to end you in front of millions of people, it's not like any sport in this. entire planet. You have no idea. So to stop trying to pretend like you know, you don't. I respect. He knows football dude. He's a great speaker of all these other things. But he really, it's why Joe Rogan came at him. And he tries, he doesn't, he seems like the kind of guy that's always right. He's never wrong. He can't be wrong. He's always right about everything. That in itself is a huge human flaw. So good luck with that, buddy. You got to work on that. we're always we all we all can be wrong got to know when you're wrong and learn for me i love it i love

i am not i'm not a stepheny smith fan i will i will just put that out there like like ben said you know all due all respect to the success the guy has you know his persona that he's developed that like you know gets the attention that he wants in his further his career that's great but i totally agree that he's misinformed about a lot of things especially about mMA as as as Ben so eloquently pointed out. And thank you for putting him on blast because I think that was, honestly, I think that was very necessary.

I'm not a fan of the man's comments at all. And obviously, not just in regards to him today, but that's a whole other, that's a whole other thing. Yeah, we actually just answered that question. We just got this one. Yeah, from at the seaside with Cowboys saying he wasn't himself fighting McGregor

and definitely, quote, didn't bring it in that fight. Is there any way Connor McGregor fights Habib right after that? So this individual just asked, asking about would Connor fight Habib again? I mean, I guarantee you would fight Habib again.

He said it a million times, right? I'm not mistaken, right? He said he's wanted that fight a thousand times. Connor? The rematch. Yeah. Yeah. He doesn't want to be pointing me.

Yeah. Right? Yeah, it's not, yeah. Not a bold statement there. I do want to ask Ben something that Roxanne Modafari was on this show last episode and she didn't get to answer this. But someone asked for her input on how, fighters view the media and what our roles should be. They asked us what we thought our roles

should be, but they wanted a question directly from a fighter. So as a professional fighter who's done the media days, done the press conferences, done the scrums, done the interviews, how do you view the media's role and what do you think our role should be? Exactly what you guys do. It's to spread the word and the knowledge and to show MMA to everyone and to talk about it and to get people interested in and talk about it. The problem is it's just like fighters. We're not equal. And one bad media member doesn't speak for all of the media,

but people like to do that. Oh, this person did that. All media is bad now. It's such an ignorant way, but people, that's human nature. That's how we've been doing that with everything. You know, one fighter goes on and does something stupid, so all fighters are bad people now. We know that's not true.

So media is everything. That's why I don't, I've kind of really pull out the last, you know, three, four years from social media for my own personal reasons. But prior to that, I had a lot of fun with it. And always, even back in the IFL days and prior to that, I always try to do media and interviews because if we don't spread the word, the sport wouldn't grow. And people need to know what's going on. So that's why I've always tried to help you guys out. and do the best promoter media. So you don't subscribe to the fact that fans are blaming the media for the previous cancellation of UFC 249?

I could tweet like, this is what I had for breakfast today. And someone will tweet me, yeah, well, too bad you're not coming 249. Congratulations. I'm like, I didn't even say anything. I just said this is what I'm having for breakfast. That social media people get to say just whatever you want, no matter how much nonsense it is. so there was no blame for 249 it's a we're in a pandemic

you know you point blame at what the NBA canceled the season when that happened I just went I told everybody what was happening after it was the NBA it's the most the March is one of their probably it's the month they make so much money

so much money was at stake and they canceled the season I go, does anybody understand the magnitude of what's happening right now? So for the UFC to have to cancel a show, it's like, come on. The Olympics. The Olympics are canceled. The Olympics are canceled. And that hasn't happened yet.

That's still a couple months. It was supposed to be a couple months away. The Olympics are canceled. It's insane. In fairness, in fairness to all the trolls out there. You know, I am a member of the MMA media. I may have retweeted something about COVID-19 back then and before, you know, everything got canceled.

And then so I might be responsible. So again, I am part of the MMA media. Maybe that was my fault at the NBA and the Olympics and everything shut down. I shouldn't have retweeted, you know, that news about COVID-19. I apologize. You know, again, you know, I just understand the power that I and the and the MMA media. So I'm very sorry. Ben, but for yourself, I want to ask Ben for yourself, have you, has there ever been

something written about you in the media or one of you or any sort? that you like really objected to kind of those frames like well hold on like that's you know maybe i said that or maybe that's what i did in the fight but but that's not fair the way you put it has that never happened you it happens i said something that was completely taken out of context or misquoted in a sense i i can't remember like i said it's been a while and it was you know we're probably going back 2014 2015 and steve morocco goes ben stop reading everything stop stay off the internet stop reading stuff because i would i would call him and I'd be mad.

Why does a person do this and this and that? He's like, stop reading everything. No, I'm going to keep reading everything. I'm like, in the shadow watching you. It's happened. But again, like I said, there's good people, there's bad people, you know. It's just the way it is. You can't quit because one person messed up.

We got to keep going. Because for the one bad, there's a whole bunch of you guys doing a great. job doing a good thing and why we have fans. Without the media, you know, the fans want to interact, they want to talk, they want to have something involved, that's what you guys do. And it brings life

to the sport. So, super you're necessary, you're necessary. That's the way it is. Yeah, and hey, shout out to the fans, obviously, without the fans, we don't have a job, you know, obviously, the fighters, I know you guys need fans. So definitely, you know, when we joke about trolls and stuff, I still think that's a vocal minority

and I really do think the majority of the fans are, are just good supportive people when it comes down in May and supporting media and supporting fighters like Ben. From Act Duke Slosh. We're all friends. Everyone's friends. Everyone is friends. You've touched on it quickly, but I'm curious to know what you think is more impressive. A one-punch-k-o or five-round drubbing.

As a Markle as it is when McGregor crumpled Aldo, I'd have liked to have seen the rematch to truly answer who was best. So, Ben, what is more impressive? A five-round beat-down or a one-punch-KO quickly? Well, it's like a dual question or dual answer. I'm sorry. There's impressive and there's shocking. Mesphidol hitting Ascran. It was like both.

But the shock factor, and I think Dana White just said it says it's his all-time high. But I remember watching that fight in this, that my jaw was okay. And though I could hear in the TV, the arena was like all the people, people around me that was watching with me were like, wow, it was impressive at the same time. Then to watch later on that he had set it up, he was practicing it, it's impressive. At the same time, someone that grueles out five rounds in an exciting war, you know, how can you not be impressed with that too? So I really can't say it's one or the other.

I see, I'm impressed by so many things when you see things like that happen in the sport. guys that have the ability, because it's not an accident. You train to have your muscles work that way to snap that punch just right to have the accuracy. You know, sure, for the fans watching, like, man, it was only 15 seconds, but it didn't change the fact that I spent three months in a training camp. So, yeah, I guess I'm impressed by all of it because I know what goes into it. And if you're in the UFC, you get that flash knockout. You're probably going home with that $50,000 extra. Yeah, some extra money doesn't hurt.

You know, Ben uses the words, impressive. Like, there's a difference between impressive and shocking. I would add informative. I know that sounds like I said if I was so informative. But I think there's something to, like, obviously I'm a big, you know, I'm Canadian. I'm a huge GSP fan.

So, you know, to take my comments with that perspective, I definitely really appreciate sort of a five-round championship defense where, like, the champion shows just how done. he is, especially against like, you know, super dangerous opponents. So for me, I would lean towards five rounds, I definitely would lead towards dominant five round decisions, being more quote unquote impressive or, like I said, informative and kind of letting us know, like this guy really is the superior fighter.

But like Ben said, shocking is another thing altogether. And certainly when you look at some guys highlight real, you can understand why, like, certain fighters are held in higher esteem than other guys who necessarily always go the distance and things like that. But yeah, I'm on the five round side of that discussion. Thank you for the question. Duke Sloshy. Alex is frozen.

Oh, no. I'm back. You're back. Oh, another question from Cam Kelly. Hashtag the A-Side. At this day and age, in order to become a top draw on the UFC, do you need the support of a nation? And is that even possible for American fighters?

Ireland has Connor, Canada, behind GSP, etc. However, most U.S. fighters support seems to only go city slash statewide. So interesting question that does remind me of the comments that Chris Wyman made when it seemed he fought like Anderson, Bichita, Belfort. He was fighting all these Brazilians back to back to back to back and Brazil would really travel to where the fights were happening. And he himself said, if I go fight overseas, America is not following me, but Brazil will follow their fighters. So Ben, do you have any thoughts on this? Have you noticed opponents that you fight, bring, can bring their

nation over, but say you go fight overseas like you did JDS, Wisconsin's probably, the state of Wisconsin's probably not following you overseas, right? Right. Yeah, that's the advantage where the international fighters can get. They can get a country

behind them. You see it in Ireland. Will this use Connor McGregor? They, like, didn't have anything to be excited about. All of a sudden, you got the UFC putting them on a platform and you see the whole country will get behind a guy or girl. And it just, they become very proud.

They have something to be supportive of. And the United States doesn't work that way because of shit. And you got to just, you got to really, you got to really rise to the top in the United States to kind of, you got to get the world behind you, really. You got to get the attention about everybody. And even then, I don't think going to have people flying out to you. he'll just give him to buy the pay-per-view. John Jones is, okay, he's done some things outside of fighting.

He still has a ton of fans. And say those things didn't happen, regardless. I don't think a whole bunch of people are flying. If he even did fight internationally, I don't think a whole bunch of people will fly over to see him. I don't. It's just how we are. People lot by the paper room.

And in the other countries, it's like they really get behind it and it is impressive. And it's like, I don't know if it's a soccer thing or if it's just because of the way the other countries don't have anything else. But they really get into it. It's like their thing to get into. And the UFC loves it because look at the pay-per-view bias where that country explode. So that's why the international market has become so big for them because of that happening. They people get behind a fighter and it's impressive.

It's definitely something that I have to, as an American fighter, yeah, it's tough. You got to fight against that. You're fighting that's a whole nation. Well, is that something you could take advantage of? Like, you could basically become a bigger deal to, like, you beat their guy. They're going to remember you. Like, could you use it as to your advantage? Like, say the U.S. doesn't get behind you.

You go to, like, say, Aldo went to Ireland and crumpled. I went to Ireland. I didn't even get to fight. I just hung out with people there. And man, so much support from Ireland now. And people are awesome. They are that, dude, Conn McGregor got it made, man, because that country's awesome. They get behind you. And, you know, I'm a bit Irish, but, you know, I'm not from there. And just being nice, just being there doing autographs and hanging out with everybody, dude, they're awesome. And so you can win them over. You got to go there and you got to fight for them. You got to be nice person. You got to be somebody for them to get behind, but it can happen. I think we have a question about that, right, Casey, about Ben and Dublin? Ben and Dublin? Oh. Or Ireland? I don't see it, but you can ask him.

I think there was a fan asked before this pandemic where you're trying to get on that Dublin card that was supposed to be in August. Yeah, that was your first one. He said he just said he was nice. He's like, Ben was really nice. There you go. There you go. It's my point. Another question from Cam Kelly has to the A side.

Do you think the UFC could be more popular amongst casuals if UFC fighters were paid more and able to be to live more luxurious slash A-list celebrity lifestyles? I don't think so. I'm not a fashion guy and I think it's a lot of hoopla. Yeah. What are you wearing today, Ben? What's your fashion? No, who are you wearing? Who are you wearing, Ben?

Rosswell There you go He's just wearing Ronald Oh honey I I think Sorry guys

I'm breaking up a little bit I think the question Makes more sense If it's If it's more asked Like You know

If you didn't have to worry About You know Certain like I think worrying about Financials Might be an issue For some fighters

I don't So if you could Just focus solely On training And if you Were so well Taken care Of

and so well compensated That you could Just solely Focus on training do you think more fighters, do you think it would improve the, you know, the quality of fighters overall? Well, it's tough to say. I think it's individual because I can't tell people how to spend their money.

But I know guys that have made a lot more money than I do and they don't have what I have now, now that time's been by. I own a gym. I told you, I have a 700 square foot training facility that my garage, I turn my garage. Okay, so I don't get to park cars in a garage. but let me tell you, during all of this, it's really nice to walk five feet out and have everything I need. And I know guys that are making complaints

about not having a place to train, but I'm like, wait a minute, you've made a lot more money than me. Nobody stopped you from making a gym. So it doesn't matter. If you give people the money, they're going to spend it however. And I was still figuring out ways

to have better training, take care of my trainers, to have stuff. So, you know, you can't you can't deny that if we give more money could the guys like me have better training do better of course i just don't see it with a lot of guys because i think they're still going to blow the money on whatever you give them more money that's more money for them to go blow on the stupid shit they're going to go do anyway so it's hard it's hard to say you know we all want

more money but what you're going to do with the money who knows yeah well half a on time, Casey. Do you have any more questions for Mr. Rothwell before we let him go? No, we just had kind of general questions about MMA stuff, but nothing before been, I think we've answered most of the fun ones. But Alex, you have any more questions? Well, one thing, I wanted to, I wanted to see those, I don't know, can we see one of those swords, Ben? I don't know, those swords. I don't know, those swords. Sorry for people who are just listening. We'll try to describe the swords later when they listen, but for YouTubers, please enjoy this. So this is a folded blade actually. This was kind of hard to get. You can see the

Hammond. So that's where they put the clay. See the wavy lines? See they put clay and it's a differential when they do. It's a heat treatment. So this is actually the old, you know, this was done the old way. This sort was made in Holland, but it was done in the old Japanese way and it's not not easy to get and come by. But so when they did is they put clay and see when they got this metal super hot and they quench it, it creates, that's what creates the difference in the steel. And that's where the, you can see where the metal is. So what it does is it makes this back part very flexible. And then the blade is very hard. If it was all one type, it would shatter. So that's a little bit about samurai swords. This is one I'm proud of.

Super sharp. I'll cut a pig in half. Jesus. I don't know why I used a pig. I just thought about hanging up a pig and cutting in a half for some reason. So this is one of them. Got another custom. How many are up there? I got four of them up here. You have names for them?

This one was named. There goes. There's the kanji. You see the kanji? Here's my camera. Oh, yeah. There is. So this is a demon warblade.

Well, it's no joke, guys. You thought Ben Rothwell couldn't be any more dangerous. You didn't even know. You guys didn't know. Ben, we did want to ask because, you know, you will be fighting in Jacksonville. What have you heard sort of about safety precautions? Have you been tested? Have they told you when you might get tested?

What's the kind of the general picture there regarding COVID-19 stuff ahead of Fight Week? They sent the email yesterday. It says when we arrived, they're going to be tested. And we tested each day we're there. From my best of my knowledge, the hotel is completely bought by the UFC for this period of time. So there'll be no public there. You have to wear a credential, apparently, just to be on the hotel grounds. and they're not allowing anyone outside of licensed people to be there.

So see when we get there. So you feel that all right about it? I do. From my word, I'm going to fly now because I heard that airports are safer than a gas station. How many more people are Walmart right now than the airport? How many people are coming with you to Jacksonville, Ben? three corners and adds to average

well any more questions Casey from either you Alex or YouTube Twitter Facebook I just better hurry up man I don't do this off my first interview this year I only did one last year

so we know exclusive we got a couple requests for the laugh but I don't want to Ben's not he's not a he's not a jukebox you know I can't just tell him this laugh for me

but I want to come natural. He's not a circus freak. You don't just order him to. Freak. I'm not a freak. I'm not a piece today. But I just got to say, Ben, I miss, I miss, I love watching your fight. I love, I think when you fought Josh Burnett, when you did your jig in the end, for the open workouts in the ring.

And I was like, I don't understand. This guy's a star. He can dance. You can, he can drop promos. He can fight. And I think you're the whole package, Ben Rothwell. I'm just saying. I appreciate it.

You got to get back in action, man. I've had some time off. And I went through hell. But I came out the other side, and here I am. So let's make the most of those last couple years I got. Yeah. Hey, if people want to see him, the Ben Rothpelt laugh or the Ben Wathwell jig or whatever new move, he plans to break out, May 13th, right?

Well, we'll see. We'll see. 10th, tune in May 13th. I guess Ovin, St. Peru. Now, before we let you go, is there anything else you want to say to our listeners? or fans or anyone else out there? I just appreciate everyone. You know, I really appreciate the fans.

Any of the fans that have met me, you know it. I smile when I take pictures and, you know, feel free. I still, I don't see much on social media, but I'll check it out. So if you guys got questions and things you want to ask me, just hit my Twitter handle, you know, hit up on Instagram, and I'll try to get back to you. So, you know, like you said, we're here because of the fans. So you guys come first.

The reason we get to do this. It'll be sad. It'll be sad not hear your roar in the arena, but I'll do my best to imagine, imagine that your home's freaking out because that's the kind of show I want to give you. Well said. I don't think we can top that promo right now.

But of course, this is Jose. That was Alex. That was Casey. Thank you so much, Ben, for joining us this Friday, the first episode of May, especially because he's in fight camp right now. You can find us on Stitcher, Spotify, Google Podcast, Apple Podcast, YouTube,

all of the podcasts. But until then, we'll see you on Monday. We're out. To the Vox Media Podcast Network.