Ben Rothwell isn’t hiding his feelings on Cain Velasquez’s inactivity.
“Big Ben” knows that injuries are a part of mixed martial arts (MMA). Rothwell himself is coming off an injury that cost him a bout with former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) heavyweight title holder Fabricio Werdum.
Still, Rothwell feels the amount of times Velasquez has pulled out of fights has been excessive. Due to his injuries, Velasquez has only fought once in 2011, 2015 and 2016. He also missed all of 2014. The last time the American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) member had more than one fight in a year was 2013.
While Rothwell hasn’t been the most active fighter as of late, he has also been competing since 2001. “Big Ben” recently told BJPenn.com that he feels Velasquez was holding the heavyweight division hostage when he was the title holder:
“I don’t want him to leave because that’s a guy I’ve always thought I’d cross paths with again. He’s a big name and I’ve never got to fight any of the guys that I’ve lost to. I’ve had ten losses and I’ve never been able to get one of those back. Cain and Junior [Dos Santos] are two guys ranked in front that I’ve lost to and the two guys I could make that up with, it’s one of them. If I only could fight one of them I think it would have to be Cain because that one really pisses me off. It pissed me off what he did with the title, where he sat on it for a couple years and really messed up the heavyweight division. I think he learned how to milk it. For him and his family and his finances, it was great for him, but it screwed everything up for the rest of us. I like guys that step up and stay active and give people their shot at the belt. Just because we’ve seen champions in other divisions do as such, they kind of set the bar and I feel like he should hold himself to that standard.”
