Wiuff Added to Affliction Card, Maybe to Fight Rothwell?

YAMMA Pit Fighting Heavyweight Champion “Diesel” Travis Wiuff (52-11) will fight on the undercard of Affliction: Banned 19 July in Anaheim, outside of Los Angeles, according to the Rochester Post-Bulletin.

No opponent was named.

Though there is no official indication, Wiuff may be Plan B for heavyweight prospect Ben Rothwell (29-5), who is also opponent-less as fight day draws near.

Negotiations for Rothwell to fight Fighters.com’s fifth-ranked heavyweight “Pitbull” Andrei Arlovski (12-5) remain mysterious.

Fighters.com reported Arlovski has always been Rothwell’s intended opponent, despite Rothwell’s denials.

However, recently both Rothwell and his agent, Adrenaline MMA President Monte Cox, have admitted Arlovski is on the table.

“Of course [Affliction] talked about Andrei, but I don’t know what his contract status is,” Cox told Cage Potato on 12 May.  “[Arlovski] was supposed to be free from his UFC contract on May 1, but I honestly don’t know if it will be Ben and Andrei fighting in that show.”

Rothwell corrected his denial, “I was trying to clear up that I was not fighting [Arlovski] in September on another [organization] as the original rumor stated.  I tried to never say if I was/was not fighting [Arlvoski].”

Arlovski has remained mum on the issue.

Wiuff comes off his YAMMA tournament victory in which he won UDs over “Pato” Marcelo Donald Pereira (1-1), “Suave” Ricco Rodriguez (28-9), and Chris Tuchscherer (13-1) on the same night in April.

Wiuff is also scheduled for the biggest pay day of his career in Japan, fighting “Ironhead” Kazuyuki Fujita (15-6) at Sengoku III on 8 June.