David Branch Promises He’ll ‘Shut Luke Rockhold’s S**t Down’

This Saturday, Luke Rockhold will be fighting for the first time since losing his middleweight belt by knockout to Michael Bisping at UFC 199.

Standing in his way of redemption is former WSOF middleweight and light heavyweight champion David Branch, who has thus far made good use of his second UFC run.

Branch revealed his thoughts on Rockhold and his performance against Bisping leading into their upcoming main event fight in Pittsburgh this Saturday during an appearance on The MMA Hour:

“He’s going to try and come out to establish his dominance. He’s going to try and run his alpha male shit on me and I’m going to shut that shit down, obviously,”

“I think that in that fight against Bisping the motherfucker slipped up. You can’t go out there and take anybody lightly,” said David. “That’s the thing with me, I come from a different background than Luke, and I don’t have that kind of indoctrination that he does. I come from the fucking streets and I don’t take anybody lightly.”

Rockhold infamously was on the receiving end of a stone-cold knockout from Michael Bisping in a rematch of a fight he had dominated and won. Many fight fans and pundits alike are under the impression that Rockhold didn’t take “The Count” seriously, and fought with a carelessness he had yet to display in the octagon thus far.

As for his opponent, Branch was complimentary of Rockhold’s skills, but stopped short of withholding his violent intentions:

“He’s a tough opponent. I respect him enough to have trained for him the way I trained for him. And that’s the most respect that this motherfucker is going to get from me,” he explained.

“He’s not getting anymore respect. I already gave him enough respect by training the way I have. When I go in there, I am going to be very disrespectful to him.”

Do you think Rockhold will emerge victorious in his comeback fight, or will Branch spoil that party?