Ben Rothwell: Cain Velasquez didn’t want to fight, used media to get himself pulled from UFC 207

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) heavyweight champion, Cain Velasquez, was pulled from his UFC 207 showdown against Fabricio Werdum after Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) ruled him medically unfit to compete.

A diagnosis we probably should have seen coming from a mile month away.

That’s according to No. 5-ranked heavyweight contender Ben Rothwell, who accuses Velasquez of using the mixed martial arts (MMA) media to alert the sanctioning body to yet another laundry list of health issues and his controversial steps to address them.

Rothwell vents to inimitable Duane Finley at Flo Combat:

"People are also surprised Cain got pulled and that baffles me because it's not surprising at all. He started saying all that sh*t in public knowing he's going to get pulled. Telling the commission you're doing marijuana to manage pain and your back surgery is already scheduled is a surefire way to tell them you're not fit to fight. But that's pretty convenient because now it doesn't look like Cain pulled out and it's the commission who wouldn't let him fight. Cain going public with all that sh*t two weeks before a fight is evidence he didn't want to fight. Don't sit there and tell me you've been in this business for that many years and don't f*****g know how this works. You obviously needed them to pull you out of the fight."

UFC statement on that mess here.

It should be noted that Rothwell also insists Jetfire is cooler than Optimus Prime and, in words that I can barely bring myself to type, Mace Windu was a bigger badass than Yoda. The dude had a purple lightsaber, he was practically the Grimace of Jedi, so take anything “Big Ben” says with a grain of salt.

The streaking Rothwell (36-10) was likely one win away from securing a division title shot; however, Junior dos Santos outboxed him at UFC Croatia last April. The former IFL bruiser currently remains unbooked, even in the face of division turmoil.

Sean Shelby ... where you at?