Nate Lawson of HeavyMMA.com is reporting bad news for fighter Ben Rothwell.

This past Tuesday, UFC heavyweight Ben Rothwell underwent surgery to repair his ACL and torn meniscus. The surgery comes under two months after his unanimous decision victory over Gilbert Yvel at UFC 115.
MMAjunkie.com reported the news earlier this morning.

Rothwell stated that he sustained the injury during his first takedown against Yvel in a fight that drew a lot of criticism from Dana White, who was seemingly very unhappy with Rothwell’s inability to finish the fight. The Wisconsin native expects a return in the first quarter of 2011, but has already began physical therapy. He will be able to start back up on strength training in three months.

The victory over Yvel pushed Rothwell’s record to an impressive 31-7, but was only his first fighting under the UFC banner. In his debut with the promotion at UFC 104, Rothwell was battered for the better part of 5:58 by current top contender Cain Velasquez. He was scheduled to face Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic in his second UFC contest, but had to withdraw due to illness.

Check out more MMA coverage here.

As the MMA writers at Heavy.com note, Sarah Kaufman wouldn’t mind taking on Cris Cyborg one day. But for right now, she’s focused on finishing Roxanne Modafferi.

Prior to making her Strikeforce debut last May, Sarah Kaufman had never been to a decision in her career. Each of the 24-year-old Victoria, British Columbia native’s eight bouts up to that point had ended the same way – with Kaufman pounding out a victory.

Since joining the ranks of the elite female fighters with the San Jose-based company, Kaufman has continued her winning ways. She’s earned three more wins and the women’s welterweight championship in the process, but fans, critics and maybe even her bosses with Strikeforce have been uninspired by her three consecutive trips to the scorecards.

Though she thoroughly dominated Takayo Hashi from the opening bell in claiming the crown as the top 135-pound female fighter on the planet last February, the fight drew poor reviews, as many wanted to see Kaufman finished her overmatched opponent. Initially, Kaufman felt the same frustration.

Read the entire article here.

Here’s a weekly rundown of MMA content from Ben Goldstein of CagePotato.com:

– Lyoto Machida retained his light-heavyweight title in a very controversial decision over Mauricio Rua at UFC 104. Luckily, there will be an immediate rematch between the two Brazilian standouts.

– DREAM’s first “White Cage” event featured another lopsided win for Alistair Overeem, another head kick knockout by Marius Zaromskis, and another back-from-the-dead victory for Kazushi Sakuraba.

– A month-long flu has forced Brock Lesnar to pull out of his title defense against Shane Carwin at UFC 106. Coincidentally, Carwin himself had been battling swine flu, but that wasn’t going to make him puss out of the fight.

– Rashad Evans became the first coach in Ultimate Fighter history to win seven fights in the round-of-16, as the imbalanced Matt “Meathead” Mitrione scored an upset over well-traveled veteran Scott Junk on Wednesday’s episode of TUF 10. Rampage responded by savagely assaulting a door.

– We took a look at some of the nastiest leg-kicks in MMA history.

– Fedor Emelianenko looked disturbingly passionate in the first leaked image from EA’s new MMA video game, and mighty dapper in his Glorious Sweater of Absolute Victory.

– Sexy UFC ring girl Natasha Wicks (aka “the blonde one”) modeled some Halloween costumes for all her drooling fans. Speaking of which, if you happen to be going out as an MMA fighter this Halloween, e-mail a picture of yourself to feedback@cagepotato.com by tomorrow night, and you can win a $100 gift card from MMA Warehouse.

Here’s a weekly rundown of MMA content from Ben Goldstein of CagePotato.com:

– Hulking heavyweight Alistair Overeem destroyed a completely outmatched opponent last weekend and plans on destroying an equally outmatched opponent this weekend.

– The two most emotionally-abused castmembers on “The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights” faced off Wednesday night, and coach Rashad Evans kept his historic winning streak alive.

– We demonstrated the difference between a ridiculously unnecessary sucker punch and a completely understandable one.

– The upstart Bellator MMA league is returning next April — with a massive television deal.

– We took a look at five MMA fights that happened too early.

– The UFC booked high-profile rematches between Nate Diaz and Gray Maynard, and Jon Fitch vs. Thiago Alves.

– We’re sad to report that UFC light-heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida drinks his own pee. Nevertheless, he’ll be kicking Mauricio “Shogun” Rua’s ass tonight at UFC 104 in Los Angeles. Check out our analysis of the card here, and swing by CagePotato.com at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT for our thrilling liveblog of the pay-per-view broadcast.

– Benson Henderson edged out Donald Cerrone in an epic five-rounder at WEC 43, while Mackens Semerzier came out of nowhere to score the upset of the year over Wagnney Fabiano.

– Chuck Liddell’s storybook run on “Dancing With the Stars” came to an abrupt end when his country-fried two-step failed to win over the judges.

– Half-crazy UFC vet Wes Sims was quickly choked to sleep by Justin Wren on Wednesday’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter, extending Team Rashad’s undefeated reign of destruction.

– “The Simpsons” devoted an entire episode to MMA, in which Marge went from killjoy protester to ass-kicking cage-fighter.

– Brock Lesnar was as big and scary as a baby as he is now, and Nick Diaz had lost all ability to give a fuck by age six.

– We met Mika Nagano, one of Japan’s sexiest MMA fighters.

– After contract negotiations with the UFC fell apart, veteran fighter Dan Henderson is jumping ship to Strikeforce.

– Leaner and meaner, Ben Rothwell laid out his plan to beat Cain Velasquez at UFC 104 next Saturday.

– If Tito Ortiz is your favorite fighter, you are either Jenna Jameson, Donald Trump, or Tito Ortiz. No exceptions.