CROAITIA – Two of the UFC’s longest tenured heavyweights, Ben Rothwell and Junior dos Santos, took center stage on Sunday in the promotions first ever card held in Croatia. Both men had a lot to gain but also a lot to lose.
Junior dos Santos appears to be back in championship form as he dominated and bloodied Rothwell in all five rounds to secure the 50 – 45 victory on all three judges’ score cards. The packed crowd at Zagreb Arena in Croatia saw the old JDS, as he outclassed and out boxed Rothwell all night.
Ben Rothwell never seemed comfortable as right from the outset Rothwell stalked forward, shifting stances frequently and never seemed to be in rhythm. Meanwhile JDS peppered him with jabs and worked kicks in and out. The former champ also had luck landing the occasional overhand right and also did some good work with his straight right and left jab to Rothwell’s body. It was a masterful game plan executed perfectly by JDS.
When interviewed by Fox Sports 1 after the bout, JDS had this to say, ““I think we did the right strategy because you can’t go against a guy that size. He’s too big. So I used my footwork to move a lot and throw some hard punches on him and use my boxing because guys, forget about jiu-jitsu and wrestling, I’m a boxing guy.”
The loss to JDS ended a five fight winning streak for Rothwell as he seemed to be steamrolling towards a title shot.
Where JDS goes from here is unknown, but you can bet he will have his eye peeled to the next two big UFC Heavyweight fights between champion Fabricio Werdumn and Stipe Miocic at UFC 198 and also Cain Velasquez vs Travis Browne at UFC 200.
With the way fighters having been dropping the weeks of fights with injury, do not be shocked if JDS gets a last second call for either one of those fights.
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