The year was 2002. The organization was UNITED STATES MIXED MARTIAL ARTS. The name of the show was “USMMA 2: RING OF FURY” and it took place in Lowell, Massachusetts on September 21st at the Tsongas Arena. In this edition of PRO MMA’s (promma.info) “MMA FLASHBACK” we are focusing on the heavyweight co-main event title fight between a young 20-year-old kid named Ben Rothwell and 25-year-old Johnathan Ivey (Travis Lutter was fighting Jorge Rivera in the main event on this card).
Most people now know Ben Rothwell as the fighter who went undefeated and dominated the IFL heavyweight division as a member of Pat Miletich’s Quad-City Silverbacks. After the IFL shut down it was time for Rothwell to really test himself. He faced former UFC Heavyweight Champion Andrei Arlovski at “Affliction:Banned” in July 2008. It just so happened that the “old Pitbull” decided to show up that night and left Rothwell crumpled on the canvas after a vicious knockout. However, Rothwell bounced back in his next and most recent fight last December at “Adrenaline MMA 2” and finished off one Chris Guillen midway through round one via submission from elbow strikes.