UFC
UFC QUOTABLES: Ben Rothwell says he needs to become a contender or find something else to do with his life
Feb 17, 2011 - 1:47:55 PM UFC QUOTABLES: Ben Rothwell says he needs to become a contender or find something else to do with his life

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

"I kind of like that [I've had an extended layoff], because maybe it means I'll get a fresh start. People might not just look at me like, 'here's this can who got beat up by Cain [Velasquez] and then won a boring decision against Gilbert Yvel.' Good. Give me a year off, forget all that, and let me come back as something new. Because this is it, man. I've got to come back, do something exciting, become a contender, or else I need to think about something else to do with my life...

A loss is a loss. I lost to some guys I shouldn't have. I lost to arguably the best Andrei Arlovski and I lost to the best heavyweight in the world right now in Cain. But it's still a loss.

Having ten or more fights in the UFC, to me, is a big deal. I've got two now. If you have ten fights where you had to win just to keep getting invited back, that means something. That's a real UFC veteran. You have guys saying, 'Oh, I fought in the UFC.' Yeah, you fought one time and lost. Don't tell anyone that anymore. But if you look at a guy like Chris Lytle, I love guys like that. That's a real UFC veteran. That's a big deal, and I would like to be able to walk away from the sport being able to say that about myself."

-Ben Rothwell talks to MMAFighting.com about his extended injury layoff and his goals for his UFC career.

Penick's Analysis: The loss to Velasquez isn't anything to be ashamed of, and he lost to Arlovski before Arlovski began his downhill slide. But despite those two losses, he's got one of the better records overall in the heavyweight division, and has been extremely successful since 2005. There are several heavyweights that Rothwell will be successful against, but I don't know that he'll get to his goal of becoming a contender. When he's able to return he can still have exciting fights, and if he can win more than he loses he'll keep himself on the UFC's heavyweight roster and make a run for his ten fights in the organization.