After former MFS fighter Ben Rothwell was forced out of his UFC 110 fight with Croatian striker Mirko CroCop, the pair were expected to rematch at UFC 115. A twist in the story has been presented by MMAScraps, who reports that Pat Barry, the co-host of the MMAScraps radio show, will instead face CroCop.

Lending credibility to this expectation is the announcement that Ben Rothwell has been pitted against Gilbert "The Hurricane" Yvel on the same card, which makes for a double-dose of slugfests featuring some of the most talented heavyweight kickboxers in the game. 

Although he's the only one of the four that doesn't descend directly from an all stand-up background, Ben Rothwell is more than comfortable letting his hands go, as TKO's account for more than half of his thirty MMA victories.  Finding an appropriate training partner who is a tall heavyweight with great striking will not be a problem for Rothwell, as he now trains alongside Pat Barry at Roufusport, a Wisconsin-based camp captained by world heavyweight kickboxing legend Duke Roufus.

After years of being considered one of the best MMA heavyweights who had not tried his hand in the octagon, Ben Rothwell made his long awaited UFC debut last October against Cain Velasquez, the AKA fighter who has now solidified himself as card carrying member of the elite club by blasting Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in the main event of UFC 110.  Velasquez did not offer a pleasant welcome into the big leagues, and despite Rothwell's iron-willed resolve to fight through Velasquez' relentless attack, the concern of fighter safety took precedence as the referee halted the bout in the 2nd after Rothwell continued to digest blow after blow.

Rothwell and his opponent, old school MMA bad ass Gilbert Yvel, share a lot of similarities leading into their second UFC fights.  "The Hurricane" made waves overseas with his absolutely ruthless and devastating striking prowess, which first echoed throughout the annals of MMA history after he nearly decapitated Gary Goodridge at Pride 10 with what remains one of the best high-kick KO's in the sport's history.

Like Rothwell, Yvel has competed against phenomenal heavyweight competition, but usually fell short in these endeavors; yet both fighters have consistently stayed afloat in the spotlight by besting everyone they've faced besides the A-list caliber opponents.  Yvel was also pitted against another skyrocketing UFC heavyweight for his promotional debut, and tasted bitter defeat from a monstrous Junior Dos Santos left-hook in the 1st round.

Mirko CroCop, the highest ranked and most reputable heavyweight of the four, gets an interesting draw with Pat Barry, who is the least-experienced and lowest-ranked.  One one hand, this may indicate a "build-up" fight for CroCop; on the other hand, Mirko has struggled severely with large, agressive, and technical strikers.  In fact, out of the Croatian's seven MMA losses, all have been administered by way of stand-up striking except for the miracle armbar pulled off by Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

UFC 115 will kick-off on June 12 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.  Other rumored match-ups for the card include:

Tyson Griffin x Evan Dunham

Carlos Condit x Rory MacDonald

James Wilks x Peter Sobott

Mike Pyle x Jesse Lennox