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I'll take Ricco on this one....
Have you seen Ricco fight in the last few years?
Have you seen WHO Rothwell has been fighting for the last few years?
Ricco should be under 250lbs now. Win or Lose, I'm giving major props to Ricco for being motivated to lose all that weight. He had and still has a ton of potential, and I hope he does great.
If Ricco doesn't have alot of ring rust, he will beat Rothwell. Prime Ricco beats Rothwell all day long.
Can anyone who is close to Ricco post pics or tell us about his current condition? I really hope he gets this win, it would be huge for his comeback.
This should be a great fight. If Ben can win this it will be big for him and the IFL
He's been fighting tougher opponents than Ricco and winning in better fashion, too.
Not really. Ricco destroyed Waterman not too long ago, and he's better than anyone that Rothwell has ever fought.
Ricco today is not the same fighter who beat Randy Couture and controlled Nog so easily.
That may be correct, but Rothwell hasn't fought anyone HALF the caliber of Randy or Nog.
Damn. Renzo went out and got a big name to fill in. I got Big Ben by flying knee.
Rothwell's a huge HW who likes to strike and trains at Miletich's. Remind you of anyone else?
It's a great test for Rothwell, I can't wait to see how he does.
DROC
Ricco will win.
He's down under 260 now.
Ricco will win...I don't think this is a good matchup, even though Rothwell has improved.
I will still watch it...I'm excited to see Ricco fight at fighting weight again.
Ricco is gonna submit him
Rothwell sure didn't look good against Roy Nelson who doesn't have 1/4 of the skill Ricco does.
I want Ricco to win so bad, not only for his career, but for a great comeback story. Lose it all through drugs, women, party lifestyle, get to 300 lbs.... get a reality check, lose over 50lbs in less than a year, and come back with a win against hte IFL's top dog.
And Rothwell hasn't really been challenged, either.
That's not true.
Rothwell did not look impressive in the fight with Roy Nelson at all.
I would argue that Ricco is physically a bigger person than Nelson even when in shape with a better overall grappling game than Nelson, and certainly a better finisher as far as subs go. I don't know if his chin is good as Nelsons but his standup skill is greater as well.
He's also faced considerably better comp than Nelson. I think if Nelson came in in better shape, worked a gameplan a bit better and had a little more experience he would have beaten Rothwell.
Ricco will beat him I think and in convincing fashion. There's an outside chance that Ricco will get clipped and dropped...they are afterall HW's but if not, Ricco will win solidly.
Now when I say Rothwell is going to win, I am saying that he is going to do it rather easily.
Just what I feel on this match-up.
LOL at comparing Roy Nelson to Ricco Rodriguez.
^ Agreed. Ricco should walk right through Rothwell with little or no difficulty.
I hope Ricco comes in good shape and shows the classic Ricco of old. If he does, this should be a great fight and he should come out on top.
Cool. Good test for Rothwell.
Sucks that Ben just found out about this change thats why IFL needs to make better guildlines to prevent Guys from getting suprise opponents. Like for example have a starter and then an alternate for that fight that has been decided 4 weeks before and if those 2 guys cant go then that counts as a DQ and 1 point added to the team score.. IMO its unfair for the fighter to be training and prepareing and then 3 days before he fights he finds out its someone else. I call bullshit on the Pitbulls they have been doing this all season and even the whole time they have been apart of the IFL. I call out scams.. Anyfighter on the UG can't tell me that this would piss them off to prepare for a guy for 6 weeks and then 3 days before the fight they back out and put another guy in there. Anywhere else they would cancel the fight. Its very unprofessional to me..
^makes a very valid point