We already knew the UFC middleweight division was shaping up to have one of 2015’s most intriguing ensemble casts.
With Luke Rockhold now perhaps leading the charge, it figures to be nothing short of a mad, mad, mad, mad world.
Rockhold took center stage among the 185-pound class’ motley crew of title hopefuls on Friday at UFC Fight Night 55. His second-round submission victory over Michael Bisping in the evening’s main event was compelling, but not nearly as interesting as whatever will come next for him.
The win boosted the former Strikeforce champion’s record to 3-1 in the Octagon and put additional distance between him and the stunning knockout he suffered to a testosterone-infused Vitor Belfort in May 2013. It also likely set him on the fast track toward Chris Weidman’s middleweight championship, though he’ll surely have to take another fight while the champ settles his own long-standing business with Belfort in late February.
At this point, though, that probably feels like a luxury for fans. Watching Rockhold’s continued rise will be one of our most anticipated 185-pound storylines moving forward.
In a division that also includes such misfit toys as Belfort, Jacare Souza, Lyoto Machida and Yoel Romero, Rockhold may well prove to be the most captivating contender of the bunch.
He was just too much of everything for the rapidly diminishing Bisping. That’s a big man, ladies and gentlemen; a dynamic southpaw striker who moves around the cage like a jungle cat and only needs one arm to finish with a guillotine choke when the fight goes to the ground. Not to mention, he looks pretty good doing it.
After using the first round to feel out the brash Brit’s hunt-and-peck stand-up style, Rockhold dropped him with a high kick early in the second and unleashed a flurry of punches once Bisping hit the canvas. As his opponent tried to scramble up, Rockhold locked on the choke and rolled into mount, switching to the unorthodox grip to force the tap with just 57 seconds gone in the stanza.
All told, it was a performance so complete and convincing that not even Rockhold’s status as more than a 4-1 favorite could undermine it. This was a fight he was supposed to win, and he did—but the actual doing was still pretty spectacular.
Rockhold and Bisping had spent much of the lead-up to this fight building a rivalry in the press, but both downplayed the feud once it was over. The negative feelings were real, they said, but had been salved by spending just over five minutes in the cage together.
Rockhold admitted that a years-old crack Bisping made in the media after the two spent some time training together got under his skin, but was willing to let bygones be bygones in the wake of the victory.
“I was pissed off,” Rockhold told UFC color commentator Dan Hardy in the cage. “I don’t like people talking about training … (but) it’s in the past now. I don’t think we’ll ever be friends, but I’ve got a lot of respect for Michael. He’s a warrior.”
Despite the bad blood, Rockhold came to Australia’s Allphones Arena, Sydney, the picture of professionalism on fight night.
Looking supremely calm and confident from the opening bell, he appeared content to let Bisping dictate the pace early on. He countered the Englishman’s punches with his lead right hand and wicked left kick to the body, but mostly he hung back, taking his opponent’s measure, sliding neatly out of danger most times Bisping tried to attack.
Not that Rockhold was totally immune to the idea of showmanship, either. He entered the cage to Johnny Horton’s classic rendition of The Battle of New Orleans (a song about American soldiers beating the British during the War of 1812) and wasted little time finishing with a flourish when he knew he had Bisping hurt.
In the immediate aftermath, he also jumped on the mic to call out another middleweight front-runner.
“All due respect to Jacare, but I’ll beat you again,” he said to Hardy. “I’m the No. 1 contender and I’ll prove it any time I have to.”
Rockhold already dispatched Souza to win the Strikeforce title back in 2011, but both guys have been on a tear since coming to the UFC. The idea of recasting Rockhold-Jacare II as a middleweight title eliminator in early spring likely strikes most observers as the right thing to do.
If not Souza, though, Romero or Machida could make an equally intriguing next test, provided Machida gets past C.B. Dollaway in December.
No matter what is on the horizon, Rockhold has duly established himself as a hard-charger in the 185-pound class—one whose size and skills figure to be a handful for anyone.
In a division full of interesting characters, he’s on track to be a leading man.
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