Ben Rothwell vs. Philipe Lins scratched from UFC Vegas 21
A heavyweight bout between Ben Rothwell and Philipe Lins that was set to take place at this Saturday’s UFC Vegas 21 event has been scratched.
Shakiel Majouri of Fightful first reported the cancelation of the Rothwell vs. Lins fight. MMAFighting.com later added that the bout was canceled due to an injury and the promotion is hoping to reschedule the bout for another date. Rothwell vs. Lins was set to take place on the main card of this Saturday’s UFC event. It’s likely that one of the preliminary card fights will be bumped up to the main card now that the Rothwell vs. Lins fight is off the card.
Rothwell (38-13) is coming off of a unanimous decision loss to Marcin Tybura in his last fight, but prior to that had won two straight fights over Stefan Struve and Ovince Saint Preux. Though Rothwell is now 39 years old and in the decline phase of his career, he is still one of the most durable fighters in the UFC heavyweight division as we have seen time and time again. It would have been interesting to have seen if Lins had the power to hurt him considering Rothwell has an iron chin. We won’t find that answer out this weekend, but perhaps we will in a few months.
Lins (14-5) is coming off of back-to-back losses to Andrei Arlovski and Tanner Boser in his first two UFC fights. The former PFL heavyweight champion, who previously used to fight for Bellator as well, has not performed up to expectations in the UFC thus far. That being said, the Brazilian has been training hard at American Top Team and was excited for the challenge of facing a veteran like Rothwell. He will now have to wait a bit more time to do so.
Do you think the UFC is making the right call rescheduling Ben Rothwell vs. Philipe Lins, or should the matchmakers find other opponents for them when they’re ready to fight again?
