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On July 19, “Big” Ben Rothwell will take his biggest step up in competition when he faces former UFC champion Andrei “the Pitbull” Arlovski on the first Affliction Banned card. Affliction Banned will feature at least 5 of the top ten heavyweights in the world with another legend sitting in attendance waiting for his chance to mix it up with the all-star studded cast. In this interview, a charismatic Rothwell talks about his preparations for Andrei, the keys to victory for his fellow bad-ass training partner Tim Sylvia against Fedor Emelianenko, and his thoughts on Kimbo Slice. All this and much more in this Big House Boxing exclusive.

Read it here!!
http://www. bighouseboxing. com/ben608. html

A Big House Boxing exclusive!

Watch out Rothwell, I hear pit bull’s like chewing on tires.

Fucking sweet Big Chris.

@C-bus Allstar: Naw, man. I’m not an MMA insider, just a businessman who knows how marketing and advertising work. /wink

@Big Chriss: Thank you!

@Armbreaker: Nope, no idea about his contract.

@Andrej,and everyone:

I was just using Fitch as an example, since he is a clear contender and riding a huge win streak. My logic here is that if he leaves claiming that the UFC ducked him on title shots he might be marketable based on his record of dominant performances.

There are simply few roads that I see to marketing anyone at 170 and 185 as a credible champion, when the likes of St.Pierre and Anderson Silva are looking so good.

At 155, Gray Maynard is a good candidate since demolishing Frankie Edgar. The key here is going to plucking guy that are in line for title shots, because those are the people who’s “stories” the fans want to see resolved.

Maynard would need two or three more wins before he was viable.

Event look’s very Fn’ good. Not to thrilled with Lindand fight. But Ben Rothwell/Andre Arlovski and Barnett/Rizzo fights are the one’s I’m looking forward to the most.

By the way what makes you think they will go after Jon Fitch if this end’s up being a onetime thing? How the hell are they going to make money for this event? please explain because I don’t see how they make it past 3 show’s at the most? There is no TV Deal, On PPV for $45 (I think), and Tim Sylvia didn’t exactly market himself with his previous fights. So I ask again how are they going to survive?

Rothwell- “All I need are some shitty tattoo’s, a mohawk, and a dead squirrell, and I can be Big Tim too!…ooh…I think I just poo’ed again…”

I wish they had left the July 19th event in Dallas, as originally planned. I was already trying to find tickets for it. The heavyweights signed by Affliction and Adrenaline are great. I also like Jon Fitch as a welterweight, but does anyone know his contract status with the UFC?

Rothwell looks like he ate the Hughes figure and is trying to crap it out.

vrax-You are absolutely right man….I guess the way to compete with the UFC Giant would be one weight class at a time…and the weakest weight class in the UFC is the Heavywight division…..Nice plan all the way around….

I’m beginning to think that Vrax has a little more to do with the MMA world that we may think. I mean, damn. He’s basically got a perfect business model for Affliction PLANNED out, all they have to do is fucking execute.

@ Eric: Good point about Lindland. The real issue is finding credible opponents for him. If Matt can’t really his game against good fighters no one will buy him as any kind of champion. Similar to what Joe Son is getting at about Fitch.

@ Joe Son: We certainly agree about the heavyweights. Fitch may not be the most captivating fighter, but the man is a workhorse. Fighters like Sherk and Hughes have put together enormous fan bases using the very same ground and pound style as Fitch does. So, it may be possible to for Fitch to do the same thing.

If they spin it as a case of Fitch being ducked for a title shot, while riding an 8-0 streak int he UFC, then he could really take off as a draw. Diego Sanchez ad developed quite name before getting stomped by the boys from AKA, and Fitch’s dominant performance could be used as a way to sell him.

Or? You could be right and no one will go for it. Hopefully we’ll get the chance to find out.

Ben Rothwell looks like the Matt Hughes 5th round toy…..

Vrax, I was with you right up until Jon Fitch. You’re not going to be able to sell him as king of anything before he faces GSP. Plus, he’s not terribly exciting. I think it’s smart to establish themselves as a place for heavyweights, like Pride did (to some extent) because heavyweights draw. If they put their resources behind that and then use lighter weights as filler where available, they could do well.

I think it is wise for Affliction to focus heavily on the heavyweights. They already have the best in the world. When you have Fedor Emelianenko, Aleksander Emelianenko, Andrei Arlovski, Ben Rothwell, Josh Barnett, Pedro Rizzo, Paul Buentello and Tim Sylvia on the same card…it has to be the most stacked Heavyweight event of all time. If they were to go after another division, I’d say Welterweight or Middleweight seeing as they already have Lindland.

Seems to me that the wisest move for Affliction (the MMA aspect, not the t shirts) would be to have only heavyweights bouts for their few cards. After a clear champion is established then, and only then, should they branch out into other weight classes.

At this point they have the best roster of Heavies competing in the world today. They can use that fact to show the strength of their promotion by claiming that their champion is the true champ. It will be hard to argue that the winner of a four way mini-tourney between Fedor, Big Tim, Rothwell, and Arlovski is anything BUT the true heavyweight champion.

At that stage they must tread lightly, because it’s not like you can make the same claims about, oh say 170 and 185, which the UFC has locked up pretty tightly.

For that reason Affliction should be actively courting Jon Fitch. Get Fitch BEFORE he faces St. Pierre and then set him up as the 170lb king. If they continue on this expansion model, they might even keep things in the black, unlike the other flash-in-the-pan promotions who try to do it at once and wind up spread too thin to remain financially viable.

Thoughts?

this is shaping up to be the best mma event EVER. I hope they dont go broke before it starts.