Luke Rockhold Doesn’t Give S*it Who He Fights Next
Newly-crowned UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold wants to have a big fight next and wants that big fight to be on a big pay-per-view event.
According to Rockhold, he wants his first title defense to be at either UFC 198 or the biggest UFC show of 2016 at UFC 200. However, Rockhold made it clear that he does not want to fight at UFC 199 because he feels it would not be important since the UFC would be hyping UFC 200 so much.
“I would say (I want to fight in) May, June or July, but UFC 200 would be cool,” Rockhold told MMAjunkie Radio. “I don’t want to be on UFC 199, I’ll tell you that. The hype for 200 will be so big it will take away from 199. Who wants to be on 199? I want to be on 198 or 200. That would be cool, even if I’m not main eventing.”
Rockhold (15-2) is currently on a five-fight winning streak. Rockhold is 5-1 in his last six fights. He made his UFC debut against Vitor Belfort but lost by first-round head kick in May of 2013. He then went on to beat Costas Philippou in January of 2014 by first round kick to the body knockout. Then beat Tim Boetsch at UFC 172 by first round triangle kimura, Michael Bisping in November of 2014 by second round guillotine choke, and Lyoto Machida at UFC on Fox 15. He beat Chris Weidman at UFC 194 by fourth round TKO.
When asked who he wants to fight next, he doesn’t care. It could be former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman or title contender Yoel Romero.
“It depends on what works out. Whatever,” Rockhold said. “If Weidman’s ready to go, we can do that. If Yoel is the fight they want, I’ll pretty much have to be a co-main event to somebody. It better be Ronda Rousey or Conor McGregor (in the headliner).”
Only time will tell who and when he fights next.
