Disappointed Ben Rothwell considers possibility of facing Frank Mir

Things definitely haven't been coming up Ben Rothwell lately.

After his bout with Stipe Miocic at UFC Fight Night 76 was dashed by his opponent's back injury, Rothwell traveled to Dublin anyway in hopes of drumming up interest in a potential matchup between him and Andrei Arlovski.

In a somewhat cruel twist of fate, the injured Miocic was re-booked in a fight against Arlovski at UFC 195 on Jan. 2, while the perfectly healthy Rothwell was left out in the cold without a dance partner.

"Really, I was sick for like the whole day that I found out," Rothwell said on "The MMA Hour," according to MMAFighting.com's Shaun Al-Shatti. "Because look, I pegged it. I pegged the event, I pegged the opponent, I knew everything. It was right there. January 2, Andrei Arlovski. This is my fight.

"And then they're like, 'no, we're going to give it to the guy who just f--king backed out with an injury.' I've never seen this happen before ever, somebody getting booked the week that they're supposed to fight."

Unfortunately, the cupboards are relatively bare for Rothwell. Most of the top-10 are occupied, and barring an injury that derails the upcoming bout between Junior dos Santos and Alistair Overeem, aging veteran Frank Mir may be the only viable option for "Big Ben."

"It's an interesting situation for me. I was going to fight the No. 3 ranked guy. Now I'm going to fight a guy who's just coming off of a loss to a guy who I've been trying to book a fight with in Andrei?" Rothwell asked. "It's tough. It's like, how do I feel about that? But then I look at the landscape, and besides Frank Mir, there's only a couple other names who are getting thrown around, and those names aren't very probable.

"At least Frank Mir is in the top-10 and he's still a household name to fight. If that's the fight that happens, then that's the fight I need to take. But like I said, I'm trying to pursue the top guys here, so we'll see what happens."