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Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight champion, Luke Rockhold, did not announce his retirement from mixed martial arts (MMA) because he didn’t want to have to go back on his word if he ever felt the itch to compete.
Sounds like that day is not far away.
Fresh off his surgery to repair a bum shoulder, the 35 year-old Rockhold is keeping his eye on the coronavirus pandemic, as well as a pair of ex-middleweight titleholders, including Anderson Silva and longtime 185-pound rival, Chris Weidman.
“I’m getting healthier and I might be getting an itch,” Rockhold told MMA UK (transcribed by Damon Martin). “We’ll see. A lot of interesting choices. If Anderson [Silva] is still interested and seemingly he is, maybe, you never know. [Chris] Weidman’s got a fight coming up. If something, he comes out of that well, you never know. There’s options.”
Rockhold had his eye on Silva even before he crossed over to UFC, thanks to a dominant run as Strikeforce middleweight champion. Unfortunately, his debut fight inside the Octagon was against the TRT-version of Vitor Belfort, akin to Dan Hibiki fighting Shin Akuma.
There was also his ill-fated trip up to 205 pounds at UFC 239 last July, which ended at the hands of Jan Blachowicz by way of second-round knockout. Rockhold is just 1-3 since beating Weidman for the middleweight strap back in late 2015.
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