Luke Rockhold is one of the UFC champions that emerged from the American Kickboxing Academy. The academy was founded by Javier Mendez back in the day and raised an entire generation of champions including Cormier, Rockhold, Khabib and Cain Velasquez.
Rockhold is currently set to face UFC veteran Mike Perry in a headliner at BKFC 41.
Although Rockhold lost his first UFC bout against Vitor Belfort in 2013, he bounced back with a five win streak that culminated in a fourth-round finish of Chris Weidman, earning him the UFC middleweight title.
Mendez recently shared an interesting detail about the Rockhold’s past on his podcast.
According to Mendez, before Rockhold became a professional in MMA, he was already an experienced on the streets, jacking up a lot of people.
Scrapping on the beach was familiar territory for Rockhold, who had been in numerous unregulated encounters before entering the professional world.
In one particular instance, Rockhold found himself in a life-threatening situation when he was thrown off a cliff by some guys he was taking on.
He was lucky to have landed on the edge of a cliff, which prevented him from falling to his death. He managed to grab onto the ledge and get himself out of harm’s way.
Not realizing that he was still alive, the guys who threw him off the cliff left him there. But Rockhold was not one to back down easily. He went after the guys and beat them up badly.
Rockhold’s final bout in the UFC was against Paulo Costa at UFC 278, where he lost by unanimous decision after a wild performance. However, the biyt was an unforgettable one for Rockhold and his fans, as he rubbed blood into his opponent’s face before the Brazilian was declared the winner.
This recently prompted Costa to post about Rockhold in light of the viral Dalai Lama incident.
As Rockhold prepares for his upcoming bare knuckle bout against Perry, he has the advantage of size, but Perry is no slouch either, having won his first two bare-knuckle fights after leaving the UFC in 2021.