{"id":698,"date":"2007-09-19T11:51:27","date_gmt":"2007-09-19T11:51:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/166.62.41.2\/~holaamericanews\/2007\/09\/19\/qbigq-ben-a-big-help-to-the-ifl\/"},"modified":"2022-07-17T15:17:23","modified_gmt":"2022-07-17T20:17:23","slug":"qbigq-ben-a-big-help-to-the-ifl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/qbigq-ben-a-big-help-to-the-ifl\/","title":{"rendered":"“Big” Ben, A Big Help To the IFL"},"content":{"rendered":"

nacunningham@hola-america.com<\/p>\n

To some writers, interviewing someone can be a nerve-wracking experience.\u00a0 You want to make sure your questions are good and the conversation flows naturally.\u00a0 \"big_ben\"<\/a>Standing 6\u20195\u201d and 265 lbs, you would think that Ben Rothwell, current undefeated heavyweight of the IFL and member of the current defending champions Quad City Silverbacks, would be the most intimidating guy to have a chat with.<\/p>

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It was actually the opposite.\u00a0 When entering Champions Fitness Center in Bettendorf, Iowa, Ben talked with me about the fan encounters he\u2019s had this season as well as team loyalty and respect for other fighters in the IFL.<\/p>\n

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One would never think that size intimidation would have ever been an issue with Ben Rothwell in his years of fighting.\u00a0 At 17 years old when he started to fight, in the \u201cdark days of MMA\u201d as he put it, Ben was fighting guys 30 years old and bigger than him.\u00a0 He remembers being intimidated by their size and sometimes scared.<\/p>\n

Years later, he now knows that size is not everything.\u00a0 Ben also has an advantage that most fighters don\u2019t have in the IFL.\u00a0 Even though he started training in Kenosha, Wisconsin his trainer there learned under Pat Miletich who is Ben\u2019s trainer now.\u00a0 He has been under the Miletich Fighting Systems for many years now and by watching his fights with an undefeated IFL record, it seems to be working well for him.<\/p>\n

For a fighter of his size and strength, he is very humble and appreciative of fan support throughout the United States.\u00a0 He especially likes to see mothers and sons at the events.\u00a0 Being such a violent sport, Ben takes time to stop and thank his fans when he sees them as well as to make sure that even though they just watched him beat up someone in the ring that does not define him. From my talk with Ben, it seems as though \u2018loyalty\u2019 is the word that defines him best.\u00a0 Loyalty to his team, loyalty to the IFL and loyalty to mixed martial arts in general.<\/p>

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When asked if the Silverbacks split up and he had to pick another team to train with, which team that would be?\u00a0 \u201cI would quit fighting.\u00a0 If I can\u2019t train with Pat then I would quit fighting.\u00a0 I was going to quit fighting before I came here.\u00a0 I\u2019m a loyal type of martial artist. A lot of fighters forget what martial arts are supposed to be about.\u00a0 Discipline, self defense and loyalty,\u201d Rothwell said.<\/p>\n

He goes on to say that sometimes fighters forget that training under a coach is a gift from that coach who probably worked a lot harder than you to acquire that knowledge.\u00a0 Ben talks about the times he fights, saying that it\u2019s not just for him but he fights for the growth of the IFL also.\u00a0 He realizes it is a new league and that he directly can affect the growth of the company.<\/p>

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One could argue that Ben is the most recognized face in the IFL.\u00a0 He is on the cover of the new IFL DVD, \u201cIFL: Greatest Knockouts & Extreme Action\u201d released this month, which would go in favor of that argument.<\/p>\n

When asked who he thought had the most potential for growth next season.\u00a0 Without hesitation he answered, \u201cMy team.\u201d\u00a0 That is probably why the Silverbacks do so well.\u00a0 They all train hard together but also joke around after practice showing just how good of friends they are with each other.\u00a0 Also, being undefeated in a fight league, Ben has room to be cocky and arrogant.\u00a0 But when talking with him he often talks about other members of his team first and how well they did this season and will do next season.<\/p>

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With the IFL Championship on Sept. 20th and the Grand Prix Individual tournament in Nov., Ben is focused on the Championship first and foremost.\u00a0 Under Miletich\u2019s training, a solid team and a crushing right hand, it\u2019s fair to give the green light to Ben and the Silverback\u2019s to start celebrating now.<\/p>\n

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nacunningham@hola-america.com To some writers, interviewing someone can be a nerve-wracking experience.\u00a0 You want to make sure your questions are good and the conversation flows naturally.\u00a0 Standing 6\u20195\u201d and 265 lbs, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":697,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"es","enabled_languages":["en","es"],"languages":{"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"es":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}