Michael Bisping congratulates Luke Rockhold on his retirement from MMA.
Luke Rockhold has stepped into the UFC Octagon for the last time in his career. He had a very successful run that included a UFC middleweight championship. Now as he left his gloves in the cage, fans and other fighters looked on and began an outpour of memories from his UFC tenure.
One man who had some thoughts following that last hurrah by Rockhold was the man that defeated him to take the gold away, Michael Bisping. Bisping has already retired himself and has a unique looking into the mindset and legacy of his former foe. Bisping has turned his attention to Hollywood and fight analysis since he walked away from the fighting side of things. He now explained on his youtube channel exactly what he saw in Rockhold.
“Luke, I do believe is underappreciated by a lot of people,” he explained. “You know, the run that he had, the career that he had, a StrikeForce champion, UFC champion, always a top contender always in big fights, always took on the best challenges. I mean, look at that. He just came back after three years of being away and took on Paulo Costa, one of the toughest guys in the division, one of the top guys, one of the hardest hitting, and one of the hardest hitting with the best chins. It’s not a lot of people that are queued up to take on that guy when they’ve been out of the Octagon for three years.”
What path will Luke Rockhold walk in retirement?
The path that Bisping has taken since retirement might be the same path Rockhold will take. He doesn’t seem too interested in the commentary side of things, but Hollywood could be a different story. Rockhold has made a good living off his modeling career during his fighting days. Whatever his next step is he will have the support of his former foe turned friend Bisping.
“I think when you look at Luke, you can see his face has aged a little bit but still looks pretty good. Physically great. He’s still got the great physique he’s always been known for and still got the athletic kicks and the athletic ability in general. But you know, you can see that he’s looking a little older these days and it catches up with everyone,” he said. “So Luke, whatever you got to do in retirement, enjoy. You had a fantastic career. You know, I think people still don’t give him the credit that he is due, but still, I do.”
One option many former MMA fighters have been open to exploring recently is a foray into boxing. Jake Paul has been speaking negatively about Rockhold and his performance at UFC 278, however, it seems that at this time Rockhold is not interested in entertaining Paul.
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