Shots fired.
Luke Rockhold has warned YouTube boxer Jake Paul to keep his name out of Paul’s mouth following criticism over Rockhold’s UFC 278 retirement fight with Paulo Costa, which Paul labeled ‘dog sh-t’ on Twitter.
Rockhold, a former UFC and Strikeforce middleweight champion and a legend of the sport, fired back at ‘The Problem Child’ during a recent interview with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour.
The 37-year-old UFC veteran said Paul doesn’t understand fighting and that the social media influencer, who Rockhold claims has lost touch with reality, will never know what it feels like to be in a real fight.
“I thought the kid had a better head on his shoulders, and I thought he was doing better for the sport [of MMA],” Rockhold, who lost a decision to Costa, said (h/t MMA Fighting). “Like you said, it was cool — I’ve seen him stand up for respect for the sport. But then the hate kind of got to him and made him feel insecure about his hate, and so he tried to put that off on me, because of obviously my cardiovascular system in the altitude. But motherf*****, you’re doing handicapped fighting. So don’t talk. And you’re finding guys that are smaller than you, everything you’re doing. I don’t think I really opened my mouth about you — don’t open your mouth about me. You just don’t f****** understand what fighting is. When you’re thinking about fighting, you’ve got to think about dying.”
“Boxing is boxing. Putting these f****** puffy little pads on your hands and all you’ve got to worry about their f****** hands. Think about elbows, think about knees, think about grappling, think about kicks, think about f****** every goddamn thing you could think about. Put you in a state of reality, which you’ve lost touch with.”
Rockhold isn’t interested in fighting Paul but warned that he will ‘smack the sh-t’ out of him if he continues to drag his name through the mud on social media.
“The reality of the modern day — people like that, he thinks he’s like a f****** [Muhammad] Ali,” Rockhold said of Paul. “Shut the f*** up. Go back in your f****** hole before I f****** smack the s*** out of you.”
Rockhold was beaten by Costa via unanimous decision but displayed tremendous heart and resilience despite the odds being stacked against him against a much younger, hungrier competitor. He announced his retirement in the post-fight interview, telling Joe Rogan that he is too ‘f-cking old’ to continue fighting.