Rothwell 'disheartened' by Arlovski vs. Miocic

After his bout with Stipe Miocic was destroyed by injury, Ben Rothwell headed to Dublin to throw down the gauntlet.

Eager to book another matchup against a fellow top-10 heavyweight, Rothwell traveled to UFC Fight Night 76 in order to challenge Andrei Arlovski in what would be a rematch of their 2008 showdown at Affliction: Banned.

In a strange twist, Arlovski's dance card was already filled by Miocic, who was too injured to fight Saturday, but would recover in time to sling bombs with the dangerous Belarusian at UFC 195.

Unsurprisingly, Rothwell wasn't pleased with the strange turn of events.

"I'm disheartened," Rothwell told MMAjunkie.com, according to Fox Sports' Damon Martin.

"I've been rallying for a fight with Andrei for a whole week, while in Ireland. I felt a lot of good vibes, a lot of traction ... I just felt people wanted to see the fight. Two weeks ago, Stipe pulled out of the fight. Here I am, in Ireland. I'm here to fight, and ready to go. Somehow, the guy that's injured, that I was supposed to fight, now gets to fight the guy I've been asking for. It makes no sense whatsoever."

With consecutive stoppages of Brandon Vera, Alistair Overeem, and Matt Mitrione, Rothwell finds himself on a short list of contenders at heavyweight and may have even vaulted himself to the front of the queue with a victory over Miocic.

Instead, he'll have to sit on the sidelines while Miocic fights in a title eliminator on Jan. 2.

"I'm not going to talk about what's fair because there is nothing fair in this sport, so let's get past that," Rothwell said. "I just, fair or not, I'm just completely blindsided. I mean if Andrei got matched up with somebody else, fine, whatever.

"But to get matched up with the guy I'm supposed to fight that's not here to fight; the fight is Saturday and this is all getting announced, the fight hasn't happened. It's absurd."