UFC Fight Night 86: Ex-Heavyweight Champ Junior Dos Santos Handily Beats Number Four-Ranked Ben Rothwell
Former UFC heavyweight champion Junior Dos Santos sent a strong message that he is one of the top contenders for the title, through a dominating victory against top contender Ben Rothwell.
"Cigano" outshined the veteran "Big Ben" through the five-round contest, and received a unanimous decision verdict at the main event of UFC Fight Night 86 in Zagreb, Croatia on Sunday.
Dos Santos has always been known as one of the best boxers in the heavyweight division, and it was evident during his fight against Rothwell. The Brazilian former champion made use of his body shots to soften Rothwell up, a strategy he employed throughout the majority of the fight. A post-fight report by Tim Burke of Bloody Elbow indicated that Dos Santos landed almost 50% of his punches to the body.
Rothwell's heavy hands were also rendered useless, as Dos Santos was able to neutralize them through movement and speed. The latter also mixed up his offense in the second half of the fight using push kicks, with one of them throwing Rothwell to the other side of the cage.
With the victory, Dos Santos has positioned himself to be in the running for the next shot at the world heavyweight title. Currently, number-two ranked contender Stipe Miocic is slated to fight for the belt held by Fabricio Werdum at UFC 198 on May 14th in Curitiba, Brazil.
And according to Dos Santos, the challenger holds a slight advantage over the champion and mixed martial arts veteran.
"I see a little advantage for Miocic. Werdum doesn't take anybody down. He just submits people and people take him down," Dos Santos said during the post-fight press conference (as reported by MMA Fighting). "And talking about their stand-up skills, Miocic is better. So I see a little advantage for Miocic."
With the victory, Dos Santos now holds a win-loss record of 18-4, with 14 wins by stoppage. Rothwell, on the other hand, drops to a slate of 20-9, with 13 victories by stoppage.
