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Askar Mozharov Out, Ben Rothwell Now Meets Chris Barnett at UFC Fight Night 188


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The time may soon come where Ultimate Fighting Championship announcer Bruce
Buffer has to say the words “Huggy Bear” at an event.

A report from
Fight Bananas
came out on Thursday stating that Ben Rothwell
(38-13) has a new opponent. Rothwell, once booked against Philipe
Lins
and then later Askar
Mozharov
, will now be meeting UFC newcomer Chris
Barnett
(21-6) at
UFC Fight Night 188
. Ukraine’s Mozharov was forced to withdraw
due to visa issues. The news of this heavyweight clash at the UFC
Apex in Las Vegas has since been confirmed by
multiple

outlets
.

Barnett, a frequent super heavyweight, has bounced around
promotions like Road FC and Island Fights over the years. The man
known as “Huggy Bear,” and more recently as “Beastboy,” is riding a
six-fight win streak with four knockouts into his signing. His
level of competition throughout his career has been questioned,
although knockout victories over Walt Harris
and Travis Wiuff
years ago have held up. In this current stretch, his biggest name
win came against the gargantuan Alexandru
Lungu
, where he entered the contest at a 50-pound weight
disadvantage but still scored an early knockout.

With a nearly similar career knockout rate – Rothwell’s is 74
percent compared to Barnett’s at 76 percent – Rothwell will be
aiming to bounce back from a unanimous decision loss in October
2020. The defeat snapped a two-fight streak of wins where Rothwell
knocked out Stefan
Struve
after committing several fouls, and then took a split
verdict over Ovince St.
Preux
. Of note, Rothwell is the only fighter in MMA history to
tap out Josh Barnett
– no relation to his upcoming opponent – doing so with an unusual
10-finger guillotine gogo choke in 2016.

UFC Fight Night 188 goes down on May 22 at the UFC Apex in Las
Vegas, with a bantamweight brawl between Rob Font and
Cody
Garbrandt
serving as the headliner. Other key matchups include
a potential strawweight title eliminator match between Xiaonan Yan
and Carla
Esparza
, while Jack
Hermansson
takes on Edmen
Shahbazyan
a week later than expected at middleweight.

This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com


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