Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold is set to compete at Polaris 12
It looks like Luke Rockhold is set to put his grappling to the test in Europe’s biggest BJJ promotion.
Over the past few weeks, there have been rumors circulating that Rockhold has been eager to transition to the grappling world. He was very nearly was a late entrant in ADCC, but he wasn’t medically cleared. Now the switch is closer to reality.
As sources have confirmed to Bloody Elbow, Luke Rockhold will finally make his move to grappling and is targeted to face ADCC silver medalist Nick Rodriguez in the main event of Polaris 12.
Rockhold’s grappling has been lauded by the biggest names in BJJ, with one of the greatest of all-time, Marcu Buchecha Almeida even admitting that the Californian has tapped him out in training. Rockhold won the world championships as a purple belt and out grappled everyone he faced in the Octagon, including becoming the first man to submit Michael Bisping.
Luke is a black belt and he will be facing off against a fresh purple belt, but Nick Rodriguez is certainly no slouch. While he has been doing BJJ for only two years, Nicky Rod is the sport’s biggest phenom and recently was runner up at ADCC 2019.
Someone training in that short amount of time qualifying for ADCC is already unheard of, so getting a silver medal is just mind blowing. Nicky Rod also holds two victories at Polaris, submitting Ash Amos and taking a decision over Ben Dyson at Polaris 10 and 11, respectively.
Polaris 12 airs live on UFC Fight Pass Saturday, November 30 from ICC in Newport, Wales. It also features a co-main event title fight between Ashley Williams and Joao Miyao.