Luke Rockhold could make some serious money should he find himself inside the squared circle with one of the Paul brothers.
That is according to former UFC and Bellator standout Josh Thomson who discussed Rockhold’s recent free agency announcement on his Weighin In podcast with ‘Big’ John McCarthy. The former UFC middleweight champion told Ariel Helwani that he was granted his release from the UFC and is looking to “f*ck some people up” in a different setting. Rockhold later added that he might go “beat up these YouTubers,” immediately leading to speculation that he could be in line to face Jake Paul or his WWE Superstar brother, Logan Paul.
Luke Rockhold says he asked for his UFC release and is now a free agent 👀 #TheMMAHour
"Free and clear and I’m ready. Re-inspired to go out there and do something new."
▶️ https://t.co/vXGdywvIQS pic.twitter.com/PwjsGWRpOk
— MMA Fighting (@MMAFighting) January 23, 2023
Josh Thomson Believes Luke Rockhold Should Capitalize on Opportunity to Fight Logan or Jake Paul
Thomson believes Rockhold could certainly hold his own against either of the social media stars with a little bit of fine-tuning and, perhaps most importantly, that it could result in a fairly big payday for the former titleholder.
“I think there’s a lot of options on the table that could make him a lot of money. Whether I think it’s a good fight for him or not, because he lives in Costa Mesa, I could see the potential of him in a Jake Paul fight. I could see that fight. I could see him in a Logan Paul fight. I could see that fight happening. I would say he’d have a better chance of beating Logan than Jake because Jake’s taking this real serious, but I could see that fight happening.
“Logan and him are about the same size. Jake’s a little bit smaller, but Jake’s the better boxer, but give Luke some time. Give Luke time just to work strictly on his boxing without worrying about the wrestling, the kicking, and all those things.”
After a three-year layoff, Luke Rockhold made his return to the Octagon at UFC 278 in August against top-ten-ranked middleweight Paulo Costa. While it was a highly entertaining affair, albeit strange at times, Rockhold came up short in his return, losing by way of a unanimous decision. During his post-fight interview, Rockhold indicated that he would be walking away from the sport altogether, but now it appears that the California-born scrapper will be looking for a new challenge.
