Ben Rothwell: “(Alan Belcher) Doesn’t Want to Get Hit by Me”
Ben Rothwell defeated Josh Copeland via third-round Retirement at BKFC 41: Perry vs. Rockhold.
Rothwell was a guest on Bowks Talking Bouts once again to touch on where things are with a potential heavyweight title crack against Alan Belcher, the overall analysis of his riveting bout against Copeland, and so much more. Excerpts from our chat are below.
Ben Rothwell
The feelings of getting an all-time great reception from the crowd and the assessment of the fight overall
“Words can only put it into such a way. You’ve got Chael Sonnen, people were saying who’s the biggest winner of the night and he said I’m gonna say Ben Rothwell. It was pretty awesome. There’s a guy that’s seen it all, done it all, and has a pretty big voice. To get that kind of reaction out of him, it’s like more than just winning a fight. I’ve won plenty of fights but to nail the interview after, to get the reaction from the crowd, to have all the residuals after the fight. The interviews, the action, the excitement. It’s like a grand slam.”
“A game-winning grand slam in baseball as best I could put it. Hit the sweet spot and make all the points. Just; it was pretty nice. Something, man, or hitting that f***ing three-point game-winning shot in a basketball game. That’s just how it felt. So, it’s not perfect though. Perfect, I have a hard time with that word. I think it’s a horribly misused word. So I have a big issue with it. I like to always point out how things aren’t perfect. Even some people were like ‘it was perfect’. No, it wasn’t because I didn’t get an actual knockout.”
BKFC
Ben Rothwell continued, “At the end of the third round, I slip off and I drill him with a right hand across the jaw. I mean, you don’t realize how many people I’ve hit in my life. I’ve ended guys with shots where I was like oh, man. He fell down from that? I hit him with a devastating right hand at the end of the fight, on the jaw, snapping his head, everything, and he took it.”
“I was like damn, what is wrong with me (laughs)? Did I like lose all my power in six minutes here? No, it’s just the guy had an ungodly spirit. He was not quitting. You’ll hear stories about someone that’s like that. They won’t quit. That man in that moment was one of the most dangerous people on the planet.”
Ben Rothwell vs Josh Copeland
Ben Rothwell continued, “If you were in a real street fight and you just threw everything you had. You didn’t finish him and the guy just keeps coming fighting for his life, you’re in a lot of trouble. I’ve heard the stories before with other people in my life but in grueling street fights. They’re like I put my finger in his eye all the way down to the knuckle, he didn’t stop. Man, I’ve heard some crazy s**t from people. Maybe they’re on some crazy drugs, I don’t know. We all know my opponent wasn’t, he was just brutally tough.”
“They said he was the number one ticket seller that night. So he had his family, his crowd, everybody was there, he didn’t want to lose. He came to bring it to me. He was there for an upset. That’s why I said it was a war because the man wasn’t gonna quit. He was there and took an amazing amount of abuse from me.”
“Because round one was back and forth. Round two, I turned it around quite a bit. I really watched the fight a lot now. Third round, it was just two minutes of taking some of my most devastating shots. Body, head, both eyes, and he took it. So props to him. He’s a tough son of a b***h.”
BKFC 41
What the Alan Belcher heavyweight title situation is like at this point and if any discourse has been had with the promotion about ‘Big’ Ben’s next challenging for that crown
“I kind of knew before the fight that there was stuff getting worked on for Belcher. There’s been some fights happened before mine. So nothing’s been said to me. The reason I made my case is because they put him on the big screen and the announcer asked. So I was backed in a corner. I’m like alright, I’m gonna make this shit as hard as I can. What are we doing? Of course, I want to fight for the title. But I’m not gonna get my feelings hurt if it doesn’t happen this fight. If I have to fight one of these other guys next fight, you know what? I love fighting.”
“Love what I got to do in there. I think these guys are in a lot of trouble. So I’m looking forward to it. If I don’t fight him with the belt, I’ll fight him without the belt. It doesn’t matter, I’m gonna get to him eventually. I think Alan Belcher came into the heavyweight division seeing a big weakness in the division at the time. He was right. Now seeing me, he’s worried. He definitely knows his competition just got a huge step up and getting away with being 220 pounds. That’s all he keeps saying, he’s 220. That’s your fault dude.”
Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship
“I’m a heavyweight, this is what a real heavyweight is all about. I know he doesn’t want to get hit by me. He shouldn’t want to get hit by me. He needs to go down to 205 or go all the way back down to 185. He can; been telling me I need to lose weight. No, you f***ing lose weight, you go in a different weight class. This is the heavyweight division and I’m the real thing. I don’t think people tune in to watch 210-pound heavyweights. They tune in to see somebody like me destroy somebody. You know, I’m a fan too and what do I want?”
Ben Rothwell continued, “I want to watch two giant heavyweights destroy each other. That’s what we tune in for. So that’s my two cents. But at the end of the day, I’ve been in this a long time. I know how politics work and I’m not getting hooked up by anything. Not going to get upset, not going to get my mind on some s**t I can’t control. All I can do and control is whoever gets put in there with me next and that’s who I’m gonna deal with.”
