When Luke Rockhold revealed that he would be returning to competition, one of the major opponents floated around as a possibility was a rematch with Chris Weidman. Now he grades his rival’s last performance, and discusses a potential matchup between the two.
The last time Rockhold got a truly meaningful win inside the UFC Octagon, was when he dethroned Weidman to take the middleweight title. Following that contest, he went 1-3 across two divisions, with his only win being against David Branch. The series of knockouts he suffered, as well as a plethora of injuries, led the fighter turned model to consider never fighting again.
Luke Rockhold Thinks Chris Weidman Looked Terrible
Ultimately Luke Rockhold would decide against retiring, saying that he wanted to fight before the year was out. A major opponent that was discussed, was a rematch with Chris Weidman, who has had similar struggles as Luke, but is coming off a win over Omari Akhmedov. Speaking with Submission Radio, Luke explained that he saw that fight with Weidman and Akhmedov, but was far from impressed.
“Chris Weidman seems to think he’s back in business. I beg to differ. He’s always wanted to run it back, and I wouldn’t mind sending him back.
“(His performance was) pathetic.” Rockhold said. “Maybe he had weight issues or what, but it looked like a heavyweight fight. It looked like a low-level heavyweight fight. I don’t know. Didn’t like it. It’s a comeback, it’s a weight issue. Maybe he’s got some issues, but nah. Look, it was bad.”
That being said, Rockhold is still interested in making the matchup happen. However he would not want to fight him in the UFC Apex Center. He explained that the environment of fighting without fans is weird enough, but if he were to do so, he would want it to be somewhere like Fight Island.
“It all sounds like s–t,” Rockhold said. “I want arenas to be packed full, and I want to go out there and make some history. It’s something about that adrenaline and stepping up in the moment. That’s what fighting’s about, that encouragement. It’s not that encouraging to fight in a f—ing sparring match in front of nobody. It’s pretty f—ing lacking, it’s just not fun to watch. You watch the fighters, you can’t hear the energy of the fans. The world’s f—ing boring. I’m sick of it.
“I’d probably prefer Fight Island,” Rockhold continued. “I’m not really keen on the quarantine back and forth, but I’d probably prefer that over Vegas, fighting in the UFC TUF gym or whatever the f–k that is. It just sounds lame. It sounds really, really lame. I don’t know.”
Are you interested in seeing Luke Rockhold fight Chris Weidman? How do you see that rematch going down?
