Former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold hasn’t competed since losing to Paulo Costa at UFC 278 in August of last year. Prior to the event, he had been out of the game for more than three years. Costa won the match by unanimous decision.
Rockhold said he will stop competing in professional sports after the defeat. However, it seems like his retirement won’t continue for long.
During an interview on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Luke Rockhold said that he was out of the UFC and exploring the free agency market.
Rockhold said:
“I’m a free agent. Free and clear and I’m ready. Re-inspired to go out there and do something new.”
The 38-year-old would prefer to look at his options outside of the UFC:
“The door [back to the UFC] is always open but I want to go f**k some people up. I want to go change and correct this bullsh*t that’s going on out there. ”
“There’s other companies, of course. There’s PFL. Peter Murray I think is a smart, sharp dude and they’re doing some cool things where the best fight the best.”
“People are not jumping each other. This jumping all this bullsh*t. If you wanna do bullsh*t you can go box and beat up all these YouTubers too. There’s opportunities there.”
“I’m just finding my rhythm in boxing and my legs could take a little break every once in a while.”
“I’m good friends with Scott Coker and Bellator’s doing some big things. ONE Championship is doing cool things too. They are coming here to the States. They got grappling, boxing, everything. That’s what I want. I’ve done it so much I want the opportunity to go box, grapple, fight, win another belt. No man in history has won three major belts. That gets me excited.”
Rockhold went on to slam bought Paul brothers and claimed he would be a much more adequate opponent for Jake Paul than any of the opponents he’s taken on so far.
“Stop trying to fight little dudes. F***ing [155] pounders. You’re a middleweight. If you want to fight a middleweight, I got hands. We can do anything we want. I really don’t care. I’d beat that guy in my sleep.” – Rockhold told TMZ.
“Him [Jake Paul] or his brother [Logan Paul] or both…they both want to legitimize themselves, but they are both fighting little f**king guys. If Jake fights a welterweight with no hands, he can barely… He fights Tyron Woodley, a welterweight with one hand. And Tyron is my boy but with all due respect – he doesn’t pull the trigger anymore, and I’ll pull the trigger and I’ll hit my f**king mark.”
Back in August, Jake Paul called Rockhold’s final UFC appearance ’embarrassing’ and Rockhold subsequently told Helwani he didn’t want to even address it as to not give Paul the attention.
“I don’t really give relevance to idiots, I’m tired of doing that”, said Rockhold.