Ben Rothwell was set to take on Alexander Gustafsson in a fun heavyweight contest until he was abruptly released from the UFC. It was a shocking situation and there were many theories on what exactly happened between the two.

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It took a few weeks but Ben Rothwell has finally come out and explained what happened with the UFC. He actually asked to be released before getting to the fight with Alexander Gustafsson.

“Me and my management sat back and it’s the last fight on my deal, what comes next?” Rothwell said on The MMA Hour. “What are we going to do? So we went to the UFC and said are we going to sign something? Are we going to get something done ahead for this fight? Cause in my mind, I’ve been kind of seeing the landscape of what’s going on and the timing and where I’m at in the picture. They let go some of the big heavyweights and stuff and I’m like even if I go in and perform well, knockout Gustafsson in the first round, look great, what’s going to happen next?

“We asked them ‘are we going to sign a deal?’ and they’re like ‘let us get back to you.’ [The UFC] came back and said let’s see what happens after this fight. We talked about it and kind of suspected that was the answer, which kind of left the door open to go out and win and do great and that’s it, we’re going to let you go anyways.”