Former middleweight champion Luke Rockhold held nothing back in a revealing interview earlier today.
It’s fair to say that former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold has been one of the more outspoken fighters during his time in the organization. He has been quite critical of the UFC on issues such as fighter pay in the past, and hasn’t been afraid to voice his opinions on Dana White or fighters or – well, anything. And today, he decided to vent about the UFC’s new major sponsorship deal with Venum.
The deal, which came to fruition after the company’s uniform sponsorship deal with Reebok expired, has been in place for a few months and and sees UFC fighters wearing Venum-designed gear while walking to the cage. And it appears that Rockhold is very much not a fan. In a conversation on the The MMA Hour, he took many shots at the new snake-inspired gear (via MMA Fighting):
“You know what sucks? Is wearing a f—king snake on my goddamn f—king thing,” Rockhold said. “Who the f—k wants a snake on the UFC [uniforms]? Do you the NBA or the f—king MLB, they’ve got a f—king snake on their outfit? What the f—k is this sh-t? That pisses me off. I don’t want wear a snake on my outfit. Basketball players got a basketball player. Baseball players got a baseball player. And then look at what we got — a f—king snake.”
For those counting, that was seven f-bombs in nine sentences.
Rockhold will return to the Octagon for the first time since 2019 when he meets Sean Strickland on November 6th.