Ben Rothwell: ‘I Teared Up While Watching UFC 189’
UFC 189 was a magically event from the UFC this past Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, which was broadcasted on pay-per-view and headlined by Chad Mendes vs. Conor McGregor for the interim UFC featherweight championship.
The UFC predicted that it would top UFC 100, although that remains to be scene. From the presentation that the UFC did to the environment that was inside the arena thanks in part to the Irish fans that were in full force for their fighter, Conor McGregor.
UFC heavyweight Ben Rothwell appeared on the MMA Hour on a special Tuesday edition of the show and shared his enjoyment of the event.
“When you’re sitting ringside, you can’t see how daunting a filled arena of just screaming fans is,” Rothwell said. “And I literally, I wanted to fight so bad.
“To be a part of that event, to feel the energy, to feel what I’m fighting for, it did — I teared in my eye because I was getting so intense. I just could’ve went and fought anyone Saturday night.”
After a so-so preliminary card, the main card of UFC 189 featured some of the best fights you’ll see all year and some would even argue that those fights were the best in a while. Rothwell brought up that each fight just kept getting better and better.
“It kept one-upping itself, because every fight was awesome,” Rothwell said. “I mean, right off the get-go, what an awesome flying knee knockout (from Thomas Almeida). Then Gunnar Nelson doesn’t have a boring fight, he comes out and sticks the dude in the face, gets a beautiful choke. Then it’s like, (Jeremy) Stephens lands an insane jumping standing knee that just flattens this guy. It was insane. It was one of the baddest knockouts ever.
“And then the main event. When you’re in an arena like that, an arena just literally about to make the stands fall down and the roof is about to blow off, and then for McGregor to just do it, Conor just comes through, it was on the tip of everybody’s tongue — can this really happen? Can this guy really do it? — it was like, wow, what an event.”
Rothwell is expected to get back in the cage soon after finishing Matt Mitrione on June 6, 2015, at UFC Fight Night 68 by first-round submission.
