Heavyweight Ben Rothwell again requests ex-champ Fabricio Werdum for UFC 211

Heavyweight Ben Rothwell is ready to return to the octagon in May, and he wants to fight ex-champ Fabricio Werdum at UFC 211.

“The people that make this stuff happen like it,” Rothwell told MMAjunkie. “There’s a strong possibility that’s the way it’s going to go. We’ve just got to make it official.”

Rothwell (36-10 MMA, 6-4 UFC), 35, hasn’t been seen in the cage since a lopsided loss to ex-champ against Junior Dos Santos (18-4 MMA, 12-3 UFC) this past April at UFC Fight Night 86. Although he isn’t officially cleared to fight, he said clearance is a formality and he’ll be ready to go by late spring.

UFC 211 takes place May 13 at American Airlines Center in Dallas. The event’s main card airs live on pay-per-view following prelims on FS1 and UFC Fight Pass. No bouts have officially been confirmed for the fight card, though reports have indicated Dos Santos is expected to challenge champ Stipe Miocic (16-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) for the heavyweight title at UFC 211, the event Rothwell is now targeting.

Rothwell, No. 5 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA heavyweight rankings, was supposed to fight No. 2 Werdum (21-6-1 MMA, 9-3 UFC) this past September at UFC 203, but a knee injury forced him to withdraw from the fight. Now, he’s pushing again to re-book it.

A front-row guest for this past Saturday’s UFC on FOX 23, Rothwell pitched his idea to UFC President Dana White, whom he said was receptive to the idea. Werdum was also on the same page, he said, after he tweeted about the matchup.

“It will be a whole other year before he fights again if he thinks he’s going to sit and wait,” Rothwell said of the Brazilian. “We’ve got some up-and-coming heavyweights that are going to steal the spotlight if we don’t get to fighting.”

Werdum, 39, remains unbooked and saw his spotlight dim after a rematch with ex-champ Cain Velasquez didn’t pass regulatory muster and was scrapped from UFC 208. He then turned down a short-notice rematch with Dos Santos for UFC Fight Night 105, explaining he’d stopped training after his initial bout was canceled.

If recent reports of Miocic vs. Dos Santos 2 are accurate, Werdum appears to have lost his title momentum. The way Rothwell sees it, he should be able to entice the ex-champ to get back into the picture by positioning them to challenge the winner of the title fight.

“I am confident,” he said. “I know when I’m healthy, I know that I can beat any one of those guys out there. I know I’m the best in the world. We can beat each other on separate nights in the top five, but when I’m on, I feel like I can distinctively separate myself from the rest of them.”

Rothwell wasn’t too impressed with at least one of them. He said the surging Francis Ngannou, who quickly took out Andrei Arlovski at UFC on FOX 23, needs to beat his requested opponent Velasquez to be considered a legitimate prospect.

“Let’s remember Todd Duffee,” he said. “I really do think he had a hand-picked deal. But I like the fact that he’s calling out Cain. There’s a good fight to see where you’re at. If he beat Cain, then damn, he earned his spot.”

But right now, Rothwell is focued on earning his. He said he’s been operating at a deficit with a long-running knee injury. After his loss to Dos Santos, he underwent surgery and had two meniscus tears fixed and eight dime-sized bone masses removed from his knee. Not only that, a leg fracture he sustained prior to the fight was allowed to heal.

With injuries behind him, the Kenosha, Wis., native said he’s gaining momentum.

“I’ve come a long way in the last two months,” Rothwell said. “I just needed time. A nice three-month training camp would work well.”

For more on UFC 211, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.