Luke Rockhold is ready to hunt down Jake Paul and finally put an end to his boxing exploitations.
The former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight king parted ways with the promotion following a decision loss to Paulo Costa at UFC 278 back in Aug. 2022. Rockhold was expected to retire from combat sports, but he left the door wide open for a potential return. Looks like it took less than six months for Rockhold to change his mind and turn his focus on a return to competition.
Following his official release from UFC earlier this month Rockhold is now hoping to land a massive matchup with Paul, who has not seen eye-to-eye with UFC president, Dana White, in the past. In fact, Paul has become one of the biggest whistleblowers when it comes to UFC’s pay scale and overall business model. Rockhold believes UFC granted his release in order to track Paul down and put an end to his combat career.
“I’d like to beat up all these little f—king punks that think they can box,” Rockhold told Helen Yee earlier this week. “Especially one in particular. Jake [Paul] would be f—king great. The UFC kinda released me just to go f—king hunt that kid down.
“I asked for the release, we were talking about after our boxing session at Churchhill [Boxing Club] with Pete Berg and he said, ‘Ah, yeah. I’ll ask Dana [White].’ And he said, yeah, Luke can go f—king fight that kid. Go beat his ass. I said, okay. I will. So, I was released to beat your f—king ass. The dog is here. The bounty man. The hitman. I’m f—king here. Answer the f—king call.”
Rockhold, 38, has zero professional boxing experience, but he has been fine-tuning his striking under mixed martial arts (MMA) for nearly 16 years. So even though it may not be the most logical matchup on paper Rockhold could do well in a potential clash with Paul.
That said, Paul is already booked to finally meet Tommy Fury inside of the boxing ring on Feb. 26. It’s a matchup long overdue, but one that Rockhold would gladly step in for if Fury happens to pull out again.
“We all know Jake. You ain’t s—t,” Rockhold told The Schmo in another interview earlier this week. “We all know Tommy Fury ain’t gonna make it to the fight so I might as well just f—king skip around the gym and just be ready to f—king tap dance on that kid’s f—king face come Feb. 25.”
What say you, fight fans? Is Jake Paul vs. Luke Rockhold something you want to see?
Let us know!