Ben Rothwell opens up on “stupid” fight against Junior dos Santos

Last month Ben Rothwell looked to extend his 4-fight win streak and secure a title shot by defeating former heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos in a main event fight. Unfortunately for Rothwell, he lost via decision, dropping down to #6 on the UFC’s heavyweight rankings.

During a recent appearance on The MMA Hour, Rothwell discussed the fight, and why he feels he messed up by accepting the bout:

“I didn’t fulfill everything that I said I was going to do. I didn’t back-up everything that I said. I said I’m a man of my word and I didn’t follow through with it, so that hurts me more than anything.”

“I was on a four-fight win streak and I took on a guy off a loss. It was a stupid fight for me, strategically,”

“There some regret and there’s not. I think more, not regret, but a learning lesson. I think right after the fights, I need to be locked up and somebody else needs to take my phone and take my wallet, because I get crazy after a fight. It’s when I do crazy interviews, it’s when I’m off the wall, and I think I get high off the wins. I don’t know what it is, but it’s obvious I’m not thinking rationally at the time. It was good for the UFC because they got to fill a main event. It was just a strategically stupid fight.”

With Werdum vs. Miocic headlining UFC 198 this weekend, and Alistair Overeem defeating Andrei Arlovski on Sunday, Rothwell could very well find himself fighting one of the above-mentioned men.

Who do you want to see Rothwell face?