Ben Rothwell responds to claim that he turned down opportunity to save UFC Dublin’s co-main

It's official, UFC Dublin has lost a marquee heavyweight clash, but for a brief time it looked like the co-main event would be salvaged.

News broke on Wednesday night that elite heavyweight Stipe Miocic was forced to withdraw from his bout with Ben Rothwell due to injury. There were several ridiculous names thrown around as possible replacements for Miocic including WSOF fighter Tyrone Spong, middleweight Derek Brunson and the man who just lost to Rothwell, Matt Mitrione. When the UFC confirmed that they couldn't find an adequate replacement for the co-main event, Mitrione took to Twitter to make the claim that Rothwell turned down a second bout with him for the Dublin event. https://twitter.com/mattmitrione/status/654363786300772353 Big Ben was shocked at Mitrione's accusation that he was ducking him, which sparked an aggressive back and forth between the two fighters. https://twitter.com/RothwellFighter/status/654374912581312512 https://twitter.com/mattmitrione/status/654387520055078912 https://twitter.com/RothwellFighter/status/654387856471912448 Mitrione is already signed to fight the man who came within one fight of contendership Travis Browne atUFC Fight Night 81 in January. However, he claimed UFC matchmaker Joe Silva had called him to try to make an arrangement which would see him fight Rothwell in Dublin. https://twitter.com/mattmitrione/status/654388508342161408 https://twitter.com/RothwellFighter/status/654389228944629761 https://twitter.com/mattmitrione/status/654386193765830656 Despite Rothwell consistently shooting his idea down and accusing Mitirione of lying about the situation, "Meathead" persisted that the matchmakers tried to make the fight happen. https://twitter.com/mattmitrione/status/654386776153321472 https://twitter.com/RothwellFighter/status/654390607012569090 https://twitter.com/mattmitrione/status/654392543887683584 MMA journalist Ariel Helwani confirmed that Rothwell was willing to take any fight in order to stay on the highly anticipated event, but the UFC couldn't find a suitable stand-in on such short notice. Rothwell will still travel to Dublin next week and will be in attendance at the 3Arena. https://twitter.com/arielhelwani/status/654364600306155520