Luke Rockholdcan feel proud about his last fight at UFC 278, even it wasn’t exactly how he wanted to go out.
Rockhold, a former UFC middleweight champion, lost a bloody war to Paulo Costa, who claimed a unanimous decision win this past August in Salt Lake City. Afterward, an emotional Rockhold signaled it would be his final fight, although he never used the word “retirement.” Since then, Rockhold has backtracked and remains open to competing in MMA or another combat sport.
In his first fight in three years, Rockhold showed a lot of heart and resilience against Costa – and gave us a memorable blood-thirsty moment – which was set off by the fact that he broke his nose “on the first punch of the fight.”
“That wasn’t exactly my ideal performance,” Rockhold told MMA Junkie Radio. “First, we were supposed to fight in Vegas, then we were supposed to fight in Dallas, kept pushing it back. I didn’t really take into account Utah and the altitude and how bad it would be. Not only that, breaking my nose on the first punch of the fight, too. Breathing blood wasn’t exactly helping the situation. …
“He kept breaking my nose. I was like, ‘F*cking c*nt.’ He broke my nose on the first punch then he took me down right after he broke my nose, so I was like, my equilibrium was all off. I was like, ‘What is going on right now?’ I was trying to find myself. I was like, ‘Why am I not working right now? What’s wrong with my body?’ As soon as I got up, it started to hit me a little bit. Then he kept f*cking punching me in the nose, kept breaking my nose. Every time he’d hit me, my nose would shift. Like, f*ck!”
The hard-fought battle was the culmination of what had to be a mentally and emotionally exhausting fight week in which Rockhold aired his grievances about fighter pay and overall perceived disrespect from Dana White and the UFC brass.
“It feels right. You live your truth, and the truth comes out,” Rockhold said. “When you live for other people’s truths … in this game, the truth is gonna come to surface. You can’t hide who you are. If you do it for the wrong reasons, it’s gonna show. If you do it for the right reasons and you do everything you can in your power to be there mentally, even physically, it’s gonna come. It should show. I just stay true to form, stay true to myself.
“I had to check myself, because I kind of lost myself. Once I won the title (in December 2015), it’s not about winning anymore. It’s about making money and what everybody else wants you to be. I kind of fell into that, I guess, trying to make money and play the role that society wanted for me, and I came out looking like a b*tch.”
Despite that sentiment, Rockhold, 37, said he doesn’t regret how his career unfolded. Even though he lost to Costa at UFC 278, he can hang his hat on the performance.
“It’s been a long journey, and that’s what comes out at the end of it, especially when you’ve been kind of mistreated, I guess,” Rockhold said. “All those years off were part of that – a lot of injuries and different things where I felt I was disrespected. So it was like coming back with a purpose, coming back for myself and doing it right.”
