Luke Rockhold Details ‘Nightmare’ UFC 230 Injury
UFC 230 lost one of the more anticipated match-ups of its card.
Initially, former UFC middleweight champions Chris Weidman and Luke Rockhold were due to rematch. Rockhold was the first man to beat Weidman in mixed martial arts (MMA) back in 2015.
However, they never got the opportunity to rematch due to injuries. It looks like a potential rematch will have to be put on ice once again. Now, Weidman will remain on the card, but will instead fight jiu-jitsu ace Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza.
As for Rockhold, he’ll nurse his injured leg in hopes of returning before the end of the year. He told Submission Radio recently that the injury has been an absolute “nightmare” (via MMA Fighting):
“The leg injury has been a fucking nightmare—a complete nightmare. It was a misinformed surgery. Unfortunately, I was misguided by a couple of doctors, and I wouldn’t say malpractice, but it was a pretty idiotic move to open me up on the blade of my shin where they did, and everything I learned thus far.”
Worst Injury
Rockhold claimed the surgery has been one of the worst injuries he’s dealt with in MMA. That’s most likely true due to his constant use of kicks:
“It seemed like a superficial surgery, and that’s why I went ahead with it. And sure enough it’s been one of the worst things that I’ve ever dealt with in my life. So, I really can’t make any contact with it. It’s on the blade of my shin and it’s such a… like, I was in jeopardy of so many things with this leg and its repercussions if I were to go out there and this thing opened up and an infection got into the bone.”
Because of the severity, Rockhold said it just isn’t worth it to risk further damage:
“It’s just not worth it. I didn’t kick. The whole camp I didn’t use my left leg to kick. And so unfortunately after Vegas I got an infection on my way back home. And then as I thought the leg was doing better and it would be ready to go, it backtracked and opened up and then it was in jeopardy again.
“It was red, it was inflamed and it was dangerous, cause the skin has to build up.”
Rockhold didn’t just suffer an injured leg, however. He also broke his nose during a grappling exchange, and sprained a knee as well:
“I’m trying to heal that up. And, you know, I broke my nose in a grappling exchange. I got caught with a wild elbow. And so I was working around both of those, man. It was just too many things.
“And then on top of that, you know, I’m switching my stance to work with that and sparring with a cage around my face, and ended up spraining my knee, trying to force that. So I think it was a sign in the end that I have to… I wanted to work around every angle I could, but this is, that was it. That was the last straw.”
He viewed the sprain as the last straw and a sign he had to pull out for his overall wellbeing:
“And the coaches have been trying to push me out of this fight for some time, and come the sprained knee, it was a sign. I don’t think it’s much of anything. It’s gonna be two to three weeks for the knee, but everything else needs significant time to heal.”
