- Luke Rockhold thinks he could beat Alex Pereira once he manages to be 100% healthy
- The former UFC champ said he has been in talks with PFL and Bellator
Luke Rockhold hasn’t tasted an MMA win since 2017 but he’s confident he could take reigning UFC middleweight champion Alex Pereira out with ease.
It’s a matter of choice
Speaking to MMA Junkie, the former UFC middleweight king pointed out that returning to his peak form is just a matter of choice for him now. But instead of forcing his body, he prefers to give it time to heal up. Once 100% healthy, Rockhold said all it takes is a good team and he could easily beat Pereira.
“I’ve been champ on Strikeforce and the UFC and sometimes you need to mix it up do something new and especially with being handicapped with my leg, my biggest weapon. I need to change it up for a little bit but do I still think I can compete at the top? With a healthy body and a good training camp, yeah. I think I could beat [Alex] Pereira. Easy. I’m sure. Do I want to go through that process or like getting up to them? not quite yet,” Rockhold said.
The future is still up in the air
Rockhold is set to make his bare-knuckle boxing debut at BKFC against Mike Perry next month. On the side, Rockhold revealed that he’s also having some good conversations with PFL and Bellator. However, he is not sure about his next move yet after BKFC.
“I don’t know what’s next. We’ll see. We got a lot of things in the works right now. I had good conversations with PFL, good conversations with Bellator and you know realistically going into PFL at this time, it’s not realistic. It was like early April and I need time for my legs to heal, my ankle just had surgery and it’s a light heavyweight so I have to bulk up too,” Rockhold explained.
“I just want a break man, I had two surgeries on my leg and I’ve had bad surgeries, ill-informed surgeries and my leg needs a break and that was my whole decision-making and going to a new challenge in boxing,” he continued.
Rockhold retired from MMA after suffering a unanimous decision loss to Paulo Costa at UFC 278. He fought through injuries during his final UFC fights and went 1-3 since being dethroned by Michael Bisping as the middleweight champion in 2016.
