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“A win over him doesn’t do much for me, and I really want to put myself in title contention.”
With Luke Rockhold coming out of retirement, the former UFC middleweight champion has called for a rematch with Chris Weidman.
Weidman. however, doesn’t appear to be interested in the matchup.
Speaking to ESPN’s Ariel Helwani in a recent interview Weidman — who hasn’t been the same since losing his middleweight title to Rockhold in 2015 — said he would prefer a bigger name following his decision win over Omari Akhmedov at UFC Vegas 6 last week.
“I don’t know what that does for me,” Weidman said (h/t BJPenn.com). “It’s a fight that I get a win back. But he hasn’t done much in a while. He is coming off retirement. A win over him doesn’t do much for me, and I really want to put myself in title contention. I’d rather fight a guy who is up in the rankings more. I don’t know. I am not completely opposed to it but I’m nor really sure what makes sense right now.”
Weidman is just 2-5 in his last seven fights but feels Rockhold needs to win a few more fights of his own before talking of a rematch.
“For him to just come right back and have a fight against me, a big, big fight, he should put some work in.”
Rockhold stepped away from the sport after suffering a knockout loss to Jan Blachowicz at UFC 239 but is expected to make a comeback later this year.