UFC 145: Ben Rothwell Knocks Out Brendan Schaub

Former IFL star Ben Rothwell looked in the best shape of his MMA career at UFC 145, and that showed as he TKOed TUF 10 alumni Brendan “The Hybrid” Schaub in the first round.

The big boys wasted no time to get in each other’s faces and start throwing down.  Early on it seemed that Schaub was the busier puncher, and would rock Rothwell with a spinning back elbow.  From there Schaub was swinging wildly at Rothwell against the cage and in the blink of an eye, Rothwell counters with a short left that sends Schaub crashing to the canvas and followed up with a few punches on the ground.

The time was 1:10 in the first round and was named a TKO victory for Rothwell.

“I feel great, I mean you can take a look at me and it speaks for itself,” Rothwell said post-fight.

Big Ben believes that his new found conditioning and his willingness to never back down during a fight helped him prevail and now that he’s back on the right track, Rothwell let all the other heavyweights know loud and clear that you can’t stand in front of him.

“I just am not backing down and I know my chin can take some shots.  I don’t want to continue my whole career going on like that but I know I can take it, I just got to throw back and if you’re going to stand in front of me you’re probably going to go down.