Luke Rockhold has nothing to lose, except a few more brain cells, according to this scouting report. That’s why the former middleweight champion is speaking his mind ahead of the UFC 278: “Usman vs. Edwards 2” pay-per-view (PPV) event this Sat. night (Aug. 20, 2022) inside Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Rockhold was working blue during the UFC 278 media day on Wednesday, along with a few other colors courtesy of his Fedor-inspired victory sweater. In addition to shutting down the new school of combat sports reporters, the former Strikeforce champion also took a few shots at the current owners of UFC.
Along with promotion president Dana White.
“When Lorenzo and Frank [Fertitta] were running the show, there were real grounding wires,” Rockhold said. “These guys don’t know what they’re doing. They’re just letting Dana run the show and suppress the sport. They need to grow, this whole fucking thing needs to grow together. Our lives are on the fucking line. Health care needs to be taken care of, our fucking health needs to be taken care of. Mine has not been taken care of. There’s a lot of things that need to fucking change, I’m just not gonna be scared to say it.”
Read the rest of his rant here.
Not surprisingly, the promotion failed to upload his media day video to its official YouTube page. Main event fighters Kamaru Usman and Leon Edwards were uploaded, as were featured fighters Jose Aldo and Merab Dvalishvili. Heck, even Rockhold’s opponent, Paulo Costa, got some airtime despite this failed strategy back in late 2021.
I guess White and Co. are still mad about these comments.
Rockhold (16-5) has not competed since his Jan Blachowicz knockout loss back in late 2019. The soon-to-be 38 year-old ex-champ is just 1-3 since capturing the middleweight title from Chris Weidman more than six years back. As for the 13-2 Costa, 30, he came in heavy for his Marvin Vettori loss back in October. It was the second straight defeat for “The Eraser,” who was previously whooped by Israel Adesanya at UFC 253 after a night of hard drinking.
To see who else is fighting at UFC 278 click here.
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