Former middleweight champion Luke Rockhold has slammed Chris Weidman’s “pathetic” performance against Omari Ahkmedov at UFC Vegas 6. Weidman recorded his first win since 2017 against the #11 ranked Russian this past weekend. The ‘All-American’ relied on a heavy wrestling game to pick up a decision win.
Soon after Rockhold announced his return to fighting and today he spoke to Submission Radio about what motivated him to make that decision, he said.
“I still want to fight. Being away has given me a chance to clear my head and do the things I’ve always missed doing. I’ve missed a lot of life. 15 years of MMA and always getting ready for a fight and not being able to go here, travel there and do what I want. It’s always relied upon a training camp and it’s this, and it’s nice to get away from it and just be able to go on my own and be free to do what I like to do at that time. So, I’m still enjoying myself, still recovering and still getting my body right too. There’s injuries and things that have stacked up over the years that I was compromised with, and it was about getting that right too. So, I’m feeling better, I’m getting better, and I know I still have more in me. I just have to be focused without any outside pressure, any weight on my shoulders, coming in with all kind of things that I allowed and took upon myself I don’t think helped the situation where I was at. So, I’m gonna come back and when I’m good and ready and that will be sometime soon. I imagine at the end of the year or early next year.”
Rockhold went on to speak about Weidman’s fight against Akhmedov – he wasn’t impressed.
“Pathetic,” he said of the fight. “Maybe he had weight issues or what. I mean, it looked like a heavyweight fight. It looked like a low-level heavyweight fight. I don’t know. I didn’t like it. It’s a comeback, it’s a weight issue. Maybe he’s got some issues, but nah, nah – look, it was bad.”
In 2015 Rockhold dethroned Weidman at UFC 194. Despite picking up a decisive fourth round TKO victory the 35-year-old remains interested in running it back. “To shut them up,” he said when asked about his motivation for facing Weidman again. “I mean, what’s worse than beating up a guy and then he keeps running his mouth?”
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