Crocop v Barry and Yvel v Rothwell for UFC 115.

They switched opponents.

Although initially expected to fight Pat Barry (5-1 MMA, 2-1 UFC), heavyweight Gilbert Yvel (36-14-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC) instead will fight Ben Rothwell (30-7 MMA, 0-1 UFC) in June at UFC 115.

Sources close to the event today confirmed the change with MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) and said verbal agreements are in place for the bout.

UFC 115 is expected to take place June 12 at GM Place in Vancouver, British Columbia. The night's main card airs on pay-per-view.

With Barry no longer facing Yvel, Barry vs. Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic is expected for UFC 115.

Yvel, 33, was unsuccessful in his much-anticipated octagon debut when Junior Dos Santos stopped him with strikes at UFC 108 in January. A striker by trade, Yvel was picked up by the UFC shortly after the collapse of Affliction Entertainment and entered the promotion with eight wins in his prior nine fights.

As MMAjunkie.com reported earlier this week, Rothwell recently pulled out of a UFC 110 matchup with "Cro Cop" due to a nasty bout of traveler's flu. He was hopeful he'd get a second shot at Filipovic but instead meets an equally dangerous striker in Yvel.

Rothwell, a longtime IFL fighter and one of the now-defunct organization's top stars, made his UFC debut in October and suffered a TKO loss to top contender Cain Velasquez at UFC 104. Prior to the loss, Rothwell posted 14 wins in a 15-fight span.

oh shit.

i got snakes in the stomach already.

Rothwell is a much better opponent for Mirko, Barry could beat him.

also....

its a perfect opponent for barry!!

Mirko has 2 strengths: Striking and takedown defence.

barry has one: striking.

immediatley putting it in Pat's favour.

I don't rate Yvel that highly, Rothwell should beat him.

Cro Cop's going to kick Barry's head off.

yeah i fuckin hope so.

By the way voting is multiple choice.


Will we see Mirko win by sub in this one (guillotine)???


I cant wait for Barry-Crocop fight. Hope for a knockout win.

I actually think Mirko will take him down and try and GnP him. Barry is shocking on the ground!

Wow, this is a much more dangerous but exciting fight for Cro Cop. Rothwell is shit, I think Yvel is going to knock his head off. Or Rothwell will win a boring 15 minute decision with both guys gassing out. Thats all there is to say about that fight really.

Cro Cop vs Barry is intresting, the veteren vs the up and comer. Barry has the potentiol to KO him with his hands or break him with leg kicks. This is dangerous for Cro Cop, I think he should work on his submissions in this fight so he has a plan B. Start out striking, if your getting tagged a lot and not hitting anything, go for a takedown. Barry has a poor ground game.

I think Barry is going to take this fight by stoppage. And ive got Yvel to win by KO.

Good to see Barry on the main card of a big event. Yvel-Rothwell could probably be on the main card aswell.

UFC 115: 12/6
Lhw: Chuck Liddell v Tito Ortiz
Lhw: Randy Couture v Rich Franklin
Mw: Yoshihiro Akiyama v Wanderlei Silva
Hw: Mirko Crocop v Pat Barry
Hw: Gilbert Yvel v Ben Rothwell

Alot of these fights arent confirmed yet, but im liking the looks of this card already.

Two main fights will be boring IMO.

Looks like a very good card so far, Yvel vs Rothwell should be a quick KO but it has the potentiol to be worst fight of the year as well.

Barry vs Cro Cop should be awesome to watch.

Sexyama vs Wandy is another really exciting fight.

Franklin vs Randy should be a really good fight as well, intresting to see what gameplans the guys use.

Ortiz vs Liddell will probably go the same way as the last two times, but it could mean a sweet KO.

Liddell is old, past it and has lost his KO power.

Tito is old, past it and has a big head.

Chuck will punch him in the head for 15 minutes, Tito will try and take him down and fail.

Chuck will win a UD and then Tito will claim to have dislocated his scrotum and had a heart attack on the way out to the ring.


Randy vs Rich is just going to be plain boring. Two boring fighters.

Rich and Randy are not boring fighters, you dont like there style that fair enough. Alot of people like watching Randy thats why he is such a big draw.


I think it Rich-Randy will be a great fight.

Randy is not a big draw. His PPV figures are pathetic. The only fights of his that drew big numbers were against Liddell and Brock. Neither of those drew because of Randy. He's a boring fighter. Wall and stall, dirty boxing, spoiling.

Rich is boring as well. His only exciting fights have been the ones where he's been knocked out. Oh and the Wandi fight, but it wasn't Rich that made it exciting.

Rich is not a boring fighter, his fights with Wandy, Hendo, Hammil, Lutter, McDonald, The Crow, Quarry, Tanner, Shamrock, Riveria were all exciting fights. If you don't like his style, fair enough but he is not a boring fighter.

That's some very funny stuff.

Out of all those fights you've listed Wandi and Hendo were the only two that were exciting. Rich didn't make either of them exciting. And the fight with the Crow was amusing because bother of them cringed any time they got hit.

The fight with Lutter was horrendous. Same with Shamrock and Rivera. You must be high if you think the fight with McDonald was exciting. Tanner? Which time? Let me guess, both? Because Rich is just super exciting!

"Randy is not a big draw. His PPV figures are pathetic"


Go look up the PPV buys for his last 7 fights, which he main evented all of them. You cant have 900,000 PPV buys all the time. His lowest numbers are about 400,000. Pathetic? yeah right.


"Out of all those fights you've listed Wandi and Hendo were the only two that were exciting. Rich didn't make either of them exciting"


Rich had just a big part to play in those fights than his opponents. You dont like Randy and Rich. Thats fine. But its laughable how you try play down those guys as boring and try to give all the credit to their opponents when their involved in such a great fight.


Rich-Wandi..... Great fight.

Nog-Randy..... fight of the year candidate.


And your WallnStall comment and dirty boxing clearly show that you just dont like his fighting style.

Wandi versus Rich was exciting. By no means a "great" fight though. And if was Wandi who pushed the pace for the whole fight.

Randy-Nog was not a fight of the year candidate. It was a one-sided beating of an old man by another old man. People got caught up in the nostalgia.

All of Couture's events do less than 500,000. His last one is around the 350,000 mark. He's done 900,000 once, because of Lesnar. Not because of Couture.

Randy doesn't do anything other than pin people against the cage and use his dirty boxing. That's it.

Let me guess, Matt Lindland is a more exciting fighter than Rich right?

Ill take what I find exciting and keep it thank you, you might want to watch the fight before critisizing it first.

I've seen every UFC fight that's ever been held. No need to watch either of those fights again. They don't rank anywhere close to the best.

Lindland is boring as fuck. At his best he was better than Rich though.

You think GSP is an exciting fighter of late so you can keep what you think is exciting.

Name for me everyone that does over 500,000 ppv buys consistently. And whos opponent cant be a big draw. Because that would mean its not Randy who's putting in the numbers.....lol


"Randy-Nog was not a fight of the year candidate. It was a one-sided beating of an old man by another old man"

Haha ! Quality ...... not

http://mmajunkie.com/news/17321/vote-now-mmajunkie-com-readers-choose-2009-mma-fight-of-the-year.mma


"Randy doesn't do anything other than pin people against the cage and use his dirty boxing. That's it."

Is UFC 105 the only Randy fight, you have seen or what?


I'm sorry if you dont get excited watching Randy or Franklin, but many others do.

Ye I really can't see how Randy's numbers are "pathetic". He is a good draw, not a great draw like Lesnar or Liddell but there are few out there who are better draws.

redmeanie77 wrote:Name for me everyone that does over 500,000 ppv buys consistently. And whos opponent cant be a big draw. Because that would mean its not Randy who's putting in the numbers.....lol


"Randy-Nog was not a fight of the year candidate. It was a one-sided beating of an old man by another old man"

Haha ! Quality ...... not

http://mmajunkie.com/news/17321/vote-now-mmajunkie-com-readers-choose-2009-mma-fight-of-the-year.mma


"Randy doesn't do anything other than pin people against the cage and use his dirty boxing. That's it."

Is UFC 105 the only Randy fight, you have seen or what?


I'm sorry if you dont get excited watching Randy or Franklin, but many others do.

Lesnar, Liddell, Tito, Forrest, BJ, GSP, Anderson, Rampage.

I doubt Randy has even drawn 500,000 as the biggest name on the card.

Oh, well if MMA junkie said it, then it must be true!

105, 109, 74, 54, 49, 44. All wallNstall and dirty boxing. The Timmeh fight involved a lot of dryhumping.

The numbers show that you're wrong, not a lot of people like watching them. Franklin is one of the few champions to draw less than Couture. Franklin does Timmeh level numbers.

I named 8 off the top of my head that are bigger draws and do better numbers than Couture. The UFC doesn't have many more headline calibre fighters. Machida and Shogun are only starting to become headliners. Both of those will be bigger draws than Couture soon as well. Their first encounter did far more than any of Randy's last 3. Second one will do huge numbers. Machida-Evans did good numbers too. UFC 109 with Couture as the biggest name on the card, did the worst numbers in a couple of years. That's your big draw?? Fair play lads!

Just had a look. Couture has done 500,000 buys once as the headliner of a card with the names Liddell or Lesnar also on it, and that was his comeback against Sylvia. On a card which also had proven draw, Matt Hughes(surprisingly big numbers for Hughes headlined PPVS) on it. Couture's average figure is around the 375,000 mark but the abysmal 109 draw will drop that to about 325,000. And his last headlining effort not only did less than UFC 108 which was the most cursed card EVER but it's the worst PPV figures since UFC 72. Headlined by Rich Franklin. UFC 72 was the lowest drawing event since UFC 56. Headlined once again by..........Rich Franklin.

So, of the last 54 PPV events held by the UFC. The three worst drawing events were headlined by Couture and Franklin. All of those events drew about 100,000 less than the events which preceded and followed them, with the exception of 108 which still did a solid 50,000 more than 109. But 110 is expected to come back at 450,000 or so. Franklin is officially the worst drawing headliner in UFC history average about 275,000. Strange since he's SO exciting and SO many people enjoy watching him fight. Even stranger since he's been main events on cards against - Wandi, Hendo, Anderson twice and Belfort. And those four events really boost his figures, without them he's down about the 225,000 mark. Shockingly bad.

Oh, and even Timmeh did far better numbers than Rich and his average is a lot higher than Randy's as well although he's often had good co-main events. GSP-Hughes 2. Mir-Lesnar 1. I can't be arsed working his numbers out without those fights but i'd be willing to beat his overall numbers are probably better than Randy's even when Randy's fights with Lesnar and Liddell etc are included.