“They’re Running From Jon Jones”- Ben Rothwell Warns the Light Heavyweights Moving Up

UFC Heavyweight Ben Rothwell will lock horns with Ovince Saint Preux as the latter makes his Heavyweight debut on 13th May.

It no more makes a difference to Rothwell whether his opponents jump from other weight divisions or not. He stated that he already went through the emotions of going up against such an opponent when the fixture with Gian Villante came up. Villante, too, is a  former Light Heavyweight. After Dana White postponed UFC 249, Villante vs. Ben didn’t make it to the new card for 9th May.

Thus, Ben does not have any new feelings towards St. Preux jumping divisions. He does, however, have an interesting take on fighters jumping to Heavyweight in general. In the A-side live chat with MMA fighting, he said,

“I already went through that with [Villante]. So I already went through all those emotions about these guys [moving] up to Heavyweight. They think the heavyweights suck. Jon Jones is beating everybody. They’re running from him. I kind of got over it.”

He believes that fighters like Randy Couture and Daniel Cormier paved the way for fighters to jump divisions. While DC held both the heavyweight and the lightweight titles, Randy shifted divisions, and title reigns multiple times.

“You’ve got guys you’ve got to be careful with at heavyweight”- Ben Rothwell breaks down advantages and disadvantages of changing weight classes

“Big Ben” believes that people who change weight classes believe that they have a speed advantage. Of course, it is fair to assume that fighters at 230 pounds are quicker to react.

“The guys at 220, 230, feel like they have an advantage, they can go up or down”, Rothwell said. “Look at what Randy Couture did. He was really good at getting his takedowns, he’d wear guys down, he could beat the bigger guy, and I think some of that stands true.”

However, he did bring out the fact that the Heavyweight division consists of more originally powerful fighters. This, he said, can be a game-changing factor.

“You’ve got guys you’ve got to be careful with at heavyweight. There’s always the power factor. I think all the heavyweights down the board bring a danger factor that doesn’t exist in any other weight class.”

Do you agree with what Ben Rothwell’s views?