Luke Rockhold may be at peace with his recent decision to retire from the UFC, but he does not have fond memories of how his career began with the promotion.
The former middleweight champion returned to action at UFC 278 after a three-year layoff to face former title challenger Paulo Costa. Although he did not get his hand raised at the conclusion of the wild Fight of the Night battle, Rockhold was satisfied with how it all unfolded in what was the final fight of his career.
“Whether I won or I didn’t, I think I proved to the world that I’m still better than him,” Rockhold said on The MMA Hour. I’m still better than him and most everybody else out there. If I’m at the top of my game, I smoke this dude. But, I’m done with this sh*t.”
Before dropping his third-straight fight, Rockhold was critical of UFC president Dana White and how the promotion runs its business. At media day, the former champ addressed fighter pay, healthcare, and more in a manner rarely seen during official fight week obligations.
“It’s f*cked up,” Rockhold said. “It’s f*cked up to say, ‘Why do you think I’m so mad at Dana?’ Because Dana never gave me a chance. From the moment I came in the UFC, he never gave me a f*cking chance. Wrote me off, never highlighted my years in Strikeforce or anything I did on the wins, only my losses.
“Dana White controls the narrative of what the public perceives. And you know, it’s like, he f*cked me from the start. It took me 16, 17 years to come back into a fight like that to earn my respect. Nothing I did in the past mattered till now? Alright. That’s why I feel the way I feel sometimes, you know? And that’s why I say the things I say. You got to understand the power that you have in that situation, the narrative that you create. The public believes what they want to believe and what you tell them to believe.”
Following a nine-fight undefeated run under the Strikeforce banner in which he won the middleweight title and defended it twice, Rockhold joined the UFC in 2013. His first fight with the promotion was a first-round knockout loss to former champion Vitor Belfort at UFC on FX 8 in Jaragua do Sul, Brazil. Rockhold believes he wasn’t treated appropriately with that matchup.
“They made me go down to ‘steroid-ville’ in f*cking Brazil and fight Vitor,” Rockhold said. “Everybody else got respect and was going into world championship fights and consideration for. I got nothing, you know? Two-time defending Strikeforce champion coming in there, and (it was like) you haven’t done sh*t.
“Had to go fight Vitor when they know what they were doing back then protecting him. Motherf*cker was juiced to the gills. Had to get cleaned by him and knocked down, belittled by everybody, and then build myself back up. I’m good at building myself back up.”
Rockhold did exactly that. He went on to win his next five bouts, including his crowning moment by finishing Chris Weidman in the fourth round at UFC 194 to become champion.
Unfortunately, in the years that followed things began to turn. Rockhold dealt with multiple injuries and time under the knife, which led to numerous canceled bouts. He went on to win only one of his five final bouts.
Even though he walks away from the sport on a loss, he takes solace knowing he proved something in his final outing. Despite his fight week criticisms, he also received supportive words from the UFC boss after the event concluded.
“I think Dana gave me his piece and I do appreciate that from Dana,” Rockhold said. “I appreciate that respect after all these years.”
