Tag: Luke Rockhold

Video: Michael Bisping: “Rockhold Is Going To Smoke Weidman Again”

https://youtu.be/vVTy29wGs40

Michael Bisping appeared on this week’s edition of “Inside MMA” on AXS TV and while speaking with hosts Bas Rutten and Ron Kruck, he had plenty to say about the UFC’s current 185-pound landscape.

When asked about the …

michael-bisping-inside-mma

https://youtu.be/vVTy29wGs40

Michael Bisping appeared on this week’s edition of “Inside MMA” on AXS TV and while speaking with hosts Bas Rutten and Ron Kruck, he had plenty to say about the UFC’s current 185-pound landscape.

When asked about the possibility of challenging reigning champion Luke Rockhold for the title in a rematch of a fight he lost to Rockhold the first time around, “The Count” claims he’ll still be able to generate interest in a Bisping-Rockhold bout by the time the fight hits the Octagon.

“This is a business and I will sell that fight. People will want to see me fight Rockhold. I will get people interested. Everyone else in the division they’re all boring, or can’t speak English, or they’re all taking steroids and serving suspensions.”

Regarding the upcoming title rematch between Rockhold and former champion Chris Weidman, which headlines UFC 199 in June, Bisping feels Rockhold will have an easier time with Weidman this time around.

“I think Rockhold is going to go out there he’ll smoke Weidman again. He’ll make it look even easier. And I’ll finally get my chance to get my hands on blondie and smash those good looks.”

Headlined by Rockhold-Weidman II for the UFC Middleweight title and featuring Dominick Cruz vs. Urijah Faber III for the UFC Bantamweight title, UFC 199 takes place at The Forum in Inglewood, California on Saturday, June 4, 2016.

Weidman Calls Rockhold Rematch ‘Bigger Than Anderson Silva’

Ex-middleweight champion Chris Weidman, a gritty wrestler from Long Island, New York, rose to prominence when he shockingly knocked out former legendary divisional kingpin Anderson “The Spider” Silva back at UFC 162 in 2013. Weidman would then once again topple Silva at UFC 168 after “The Spider” suffered a gruesome leg injury, giving “The All-American”

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Ex-middleweight champion Chris Weidman, a gritty wrestler from Long Island, New York, rose to prominence when he shockingly knocked out former legendary divisional kingpin Anderson “The Spider” Silva back at UFC 162 in 2013.

Weidman would then once again topple Silva at UFC 168 after “The Spider” suffered a gruesome leg injury, giving “The All-American” back to back milestone victories.

The New Yorker would secure two more title defenses over the likes of Lyoto Machida and Vitor Belfort before surrendering his strap to reigning champion Luke Rockhold at last December’s UFC 194.

Weidman will get his chance at redemption when he meets Rockhold in a rematch at the upcoming UFC 199 (June 4, 2016), and the former champion admits that this rematch lies bigger than his bouts with Silva:

“This is a do or die fight for me,” said Weidman. “I have to go out there and dominate him. This is my career on the line. This is bigger than my Anderson Silva fights.” Weidman said on a recent edition of Inside MMA.

The first fight saw the two men go back and forth for much of the opening minutes before an ill-advised spinning kick attempt by Weidman gave Rockhold the upper hand later in the bout.

The Serra-Longo product had also apparently come into the fight with a broken foot, also previously admitting that his mental state may not have been where it should have.

Now, however, the former boss feels as if he’s back to normal, and ready to recapture glory:

“I know where I was at for that last fight,” added Weidman. “I know my potential. I know where I was physically and mentally at and I know where I can be at.”

Will Weidman be able to fix his mistakes and come out on top in the rematch?

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New York’s Own Chris Weidman Wants Top Billing On First NYC Card

A native of Long Island and a proud New Yorker, Chris Weidman has been pushing hard for the legalization of MMA in his home state.

Now that the two sides are closer than ever, the former UFC middleweight champion is already thinking about his chance…

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A native of Long Island and a proud New Yorker, Chris Weidman has been pushing hard for the legalization of MMA in his home state.

Now that the two sides are closer than ever, the former UFC middleweight champion is already thinking about his chance to fight in New York.

Hear what Weidman had to say about that, his rematch with Luke Rockhold and more in the video below courtesy “Inside MMA.”

Luke Rockhold Has A Major Complaint About The UFC 199 Poster

Heading into his rematch with Chris Weidman at June 4’s UFC 199 from The Forum in Inglewood, California, UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold has a problem with the look of the upcoming event’s poster. Rockhold will look for his title defense against former champion Weidman, whom he took the belt from by fourth-round TKO stoppage

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Heading into his rematch with Chris Weidman at June 4’s UFC 199 from The Forum in Inglewood, California, UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold has a problem with the look of the upcoming event’s poster.

Rockhold will look for his title defense against former champion Weidman, whom he took the belt from by fourth-round TKO stoppage in the co-main event of last December’s UFC 194, but apparently he doesn’t think that the poster portrays that side of the story too well.

The Southern California native took to Twitter today to voice his frustration at the image, noting that what appears to be Weidman’s hand should not be in the middle of the photo. One of his followers then responded about the image in question. Check it out:

It would seem that Rockhold is angered by the fact that Weidman’s fist is being held next to his face, portraying him as the aggressor when it was in fact him who got the upper hand of the New York native in their first fight.

The two will now clash in Rockhold’s home state, and the emotions have already been running extremely heated for Weidman, who seems hell-bent on regaining his title, especially now that MMA has been made official in New York.

As for Rockhold’s dislike of the poster, he’ll have to take it up with the UFC’s design department, similar to how Conor McGregor did when he believed he wasn’t featured prominently enough in the poster for perviously scheduled lightweight title bout against Rafael dos Anjos at UFC 196.

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Rockhold Says Jones, Fans Getting Into Cormier’s Head Again Going Into UFC 197 Rematch

https://youtu.be/GCapd0w6Zis

After claiming that he was “too emotionally invested” in their first meeting, Daniel Cormier is coming awfully close to repeating that same mistake heading into his scheduled rematch against Jon Jones at next month’s UFC…

luke-rockhold-interview

https://youtu.be/GCapd0w6Zis

After claiming that he was “too emotionally invested” in their first meeting, Daniel Cormier is coming awfully close to repeating that same mistake heading into his scheduled rematch against Jon Jones at next month’s UFC 197 pay-per-view, according to D.C.’s teammate and fellow UFC champion Luke Rockhold.

Rockhold spoke with the folks at MMA Underground recently and claimed that he felt Jones and the crowd reaction got to Cormier at the recent UFC Unstoppable press conference.

“I love DC but yea,” Rockhold said during the interview, which you can watch above. “He played into the “Jon Jones being the bad guy” role too much and let the boos get to him. Just got to block that out. Be yourself. Who cares? If the people like you, they like you. If they don’t, they don’t. If they like Jon Jones, who the f*ck cares? He let that get to him, no doubt.”

Rockhold claims that after the press conference, which he also attended to promote his upcoming rematch against Chris Weidman at UFC 199 in June, he had a talk with Cormier.

“A little bit,” Rockhold admitted. “A little bit. There’s not much to say at this point. I think he kind of lost track of what he was doing there for a second and played too far into “bad guy” Jon Jones and tried to beat him down over outside the cage [issues]. Focus on the technique. Focus on the fight and what’s going to happen. That’s all I had to say, really.”

According to Rockhold, despite all of the mental warfare heading into the bout, if his teammate makes the proper technical adjustments, he can absolutely retain his UFC Light Heavyweight title in his UFC 197 showdown with “Bones” Jones.

“Everyone wants to act like it was that lopsided of a fight,” said Rockhold. “It was fairly close. I think DC just needs to relax. The more relaxation he’ll have the more vision he’ll have and the more he can pick his takedowns here and there. I think he had a lot of success in the boxing. Implementing more takedowns and staying out of the clinch. Just basic things that are pretty obvious.

“There’s other avenues that we might be focusing on, but it’s pretty basic information. If you go back and watch the fight, the little areas that he was caught up in. I think he let the stage get to him too much last time and he just needs to focus on relaxing. Relaxation so he can see what’s happening in front of him and what’s unfolding and how to adjust to it.”

UFC 197: Cormier vs. Jones II is scheduled for Saturday, April 23, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Make sure to join us here at MMANews.com on 4/23 for the best UFC 197 live results coverage on the web!

H/T to MMAFighting.com for transcribing.

Chris Weidman: I Got A Chance To Deflate “Cocky” Luke Rockhold’s Head

Despite ultimately suffering a bloody beatdown against Luke Rockhold in the “Fight of the Night” at December’s UFC 194, former UFC middleweight champion has a firm belief he will regain the championship when he meets Rockhold again in the main event of June 4’s UFC 199 from The Forum in Inglewood, California. He’s never been

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Despite ultimately suffering a bloody beatdown against Luke Rockhold in the “Fight of the Night” at December’s UFC 194, former UFC middleweight champion has a firm belief he will regain the championship when he meets Rockhold again in the main event of June 4’s UFC 199 from The Forum in Inglewood, California.

He’s never been one lacking for confidence, but the man who dethroned longtime champion Anderson Silva recently told MMA Fighting his belief was rooted in the fact that he was dealing with some relatively serious injuries in the first fight. Admitting there were no excuses, he instead called his broken foot and other ailments simple facts:

“I say these things, because they came out. It’s a fact. There’s no excuses.

“I knew what I was getting myself into, but I still thought I could go out there and beat him,” Weidman said. “Even with that stuff. And he proved that I was wrong. He came out to fight. He was better than me that night.”

As for the rematch, Weidman is more focused on his potential now that he knows what Rockhold brings to the table, as he was unable to reach anything even close to that in their first match-up. The East Coast native expressed gratitude at having a second chance, which he attributed to his illustrious accomplishments in the Octagon.

With that established, he predicted he would go out and destroy the champion at UFC 199:

“I know what I’m capable of,” Weidman said. “I know my potential and I know I wasn’t close to it. The fact that because of what I’ve accomplished in the past gives me the opportunity to get a rematch is a great situation to be in. In most situations, people don’t get the second chance, especially right away. So, I’m very grateful for the opportunity I have. There’s no question in my mind that I’m gonna go out there and make a statement, completely dominate him and make sure everybody knows the last fight was a fluke.”

Analyzing his performance, the All-American wrestler confessed he might have been overconfident after going into several fights with injuries and winning. However, ultimately he is thankful that it happened, as he acknowledged the improvement he was forced to acquire that he otherwise would not have:

“I’ve taken situations like that and gotten through it and gotten Ws. I thought it was gonna be another day like that and I was wrong. [The loss] really allowed me to grow in so many ways that I wouldn’t have been able to grow otherwise.”

Closing with his attention on Rockhold, Weidman said that the new champion has gotten overconfident in his short time with the belt, and it digs at him to have given him that supposed boost of arrogance. While it doesn’t necessarily make him happy , Weidman knows he has to swallow that pill and do everything necessary to ensure he brings Rockhold down to Earth at UFC 199:

“I feel like he’s cocky and I gave him a bigger head and gave him something to be even more cocky about,” Weidman said. “It sucks for me. I’ve gotta suck it up. I got a chance to deflate the head. That’s the goal. I have to go back in there and feed him some humble pie.”

Following last week’s official announcement at the UFC: Unstoppable press conference and the bad blood that followed, the stage is set for a high-stakes immediate rematch in Rockhold’s neck of the woods, and Weidman appears to be more intense and focused than he ever has been. Will the extra emotion play out in his favor in three months?

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