The moment he saw the blood trickling from a cut near Cain Velasquez ’s eye late in the first round of the UFC 188 main event in Mexico City, at least one fellow fighter knew the recently deposed UFC heavyweight champion was in trouble. In his own way, Ben Rothwell had been there before. At another high-elevation event, UFC 135 in Denver some four years earlier, Rothwell clearly won the first round of his heavyweight bout against Mark Hunt. But late in the round, a Hunt elbow opened a cut above Rothwell’s right eye, and Rothwell didn’t feel like his body reacted to that the same way it had in lower altitudes, he said. “I felt immediately different going into the second round,” Rothwell said.
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