Luke Rockhold reveals why he decided to put a move to light heavyweight from middleweight on hold to accept this rematch with someone he knows well.
Rocky Road
The former UFC middleweight champion was looking to make a big change to his pro-MMA career after his latest fight, which was a weight class change. Rockhold is coming off a devastating loss to Yoel Romero in the main event of UFC 221 in Australia.
If you recall, Rockhold was originally slated to fight Robert Whittaker for the middleweight title at the event. However, the promotion had to make changes to the card once Whittaker pulled out with an injury. Thus, the UFC booked Rockhold vs. Romero for the interim title.
Luke Rockhold Reveals
His plans changed once the UFC offered him a rematch against fellow former champion Chris Weidman at the UFC 230 PPV event. In a recent interview with Submission Radio, Rockhold noted that he couldn’t pass up a big middleweight fight at the most famous arena in the world. He did make it clear that he still does plan to make the weight class change in the near future.
“Simple enough, it’s a big fight in a big arena,” Rockhold said (H/T to MMAFighting). “It’s a place I’ve always wanted to go and a perfect match-up. It’s a very fitting situation. It’s something that gets me up, gets me excited, and makes me want to drop that weight. And there’s a hold up. There’s a hold up in the [light heavyweight] division. Obviously I’m very close to ‘DC’ [Daniel Cormier.] I know his standing, where he’s going and what’s going on right now. So there’s a lot of things that need to be cleared up before I make that move and run up on the light heavyweights.”
“It’s Weidman at Madison Square Garden,” Rockhold continued. “He’s an incredible fighter, man. He put away Kelvin Gastelum. People want to discredit Weidman because he’s had a couple of rough fights since we encountered but he showed up. You’re only as good as your last fight, they say. He showed up and put Gastelum away like nobody else has. He’s very relevant in the division. He’s No. 3 in the world so going in an putting him away again speaks volumes.”
“I was seeking this fight,” Rockhold said. “I thought that we could make this thing happen. We were trying to get the Madison Square Garden fight originally so it’s a fitting situation. It’s time to end this thing. We were supposed to have that rematch after the first fight. He thought certain ways about it and it’s time to silence everything, everybody. There was nothing else happening but me dominating that fight. I’m gonna go out there and prove that. Spinning heel-kick, whatever the f**k you guys want to talk about, it doesn’t f**king matter. I’m gonna go out there and I’m gonna put an end to this thing. I’m gonna put a stamp on it.”
The UFC 230 pay-per-view event is set to take place on Saturday, November 3, 2018 at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, New York City.
The main card airing on pay-per-view at 10 p.m. ET while the preliminary card will air on FOX Sports 1 at 8 p.m. ET and the promotion’s streaming service, UFC Fight Pass.
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