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Heavyweights and the Mile High City don't mix. Ben Rothwell found that out the hard way in Denver.
The 263-pound Rothwell was nearly falling over from exhaustion by the middle of his fight against Mark Hunt. Hunt, a big boy himself, beat up the helpless Rothwell over the last two rounds to get a unanimous decision win, 29-28, 29-27 and 30-27 at UFC 135.
Rothwell (31-8, 1-2 UFC) was a heavy favorite at minus-350. The 37-year-old Hunt entered the fight at just 6-7 during mixed martial arts career.
He was given a few fights in the UFC because of old contractual obligations that carried over when Zuffa bought PRIDE. A top level kickboxer, Hunt was thrown to wolves by the Japanese promotion. The Japanese aren't always interesed in even match ups so Hunt lost to guys at the top of the MMA game like Fedor Emelianenko, Josh Barnett, Alistair Overeem, Gegard Mousasi and Hidehiko Yoshida.
He's seized the opportunity with the UFC. The biggest thing did was re-dedicate himself as far as conditioning. The 5-foot-11 fireplug fought around 290 pounds in Japan. Now he's a much trimmer 261 and he's added solid grappling to his game.
Hunt really stymied Rothwell's takedown attack in the first round, The Samoan fighting out of New Zealand thwarted 10-of-12 takedowns. His powerful striking sapped Rothwell. He landed 58-of-85 shots when he had top control with a 90-20 strikes landed edge.
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