In April 2012 he had the Knockout of the Night with a win over Brendan Schaub. Rothwell had the Performance of the Night with a win over Alistair Overeem in September 2014. He had another Performance of the Night by defeating Josh Barnett in January 2016 to bring his MMA record to 36 – 9 with 20 knockouts. Rothwell competed for the Quad Cities Silverbacks of the IFL and has also fought with Affliction, King of the Cage, and M-1 Global. As of February 2016 he was ranked #5 in the official UFC heavyweight rankings.