Luke Rockhold received some nice UFC parting words from Dana White, which he says he appreciated.
Rockhold has been vocal about fighter pay, among other things, which has caused the UFC president to fire back at him. Rockhold says the relationship between the two heavily soured after he lost his UFC middleweight title in 2016, but after a blood-and-guts war with Paulo Costa at UFC 278, White paid his respect to the middleweight great.
“I’ll never say anything (bad) about him. I totally respect him,” White said after Rockhold’s gutsy loss to Costa.
In an emotional post-fight interview, Rockhold (16-6 MMA, 6-5 UFC) decided to retire. Speaking to MMA Junkie Radio, Rockhold reflected on where things went wrong with White and the unfair criticism he thinks he got over the years.
“It definitely felt good to get that respect I felt I always deserved, but I guess you’ve got to get dirty and nasty sometimes to show people who the f*ck you are,” Rockhold said. “People want to assume I’m this, people want to assume I’m that. I’m sure the Polo (modeling) deal didn’t help – people just hated me even more. But that was the thing with Dana in the first place. He disrespected me when I lost the title and said, ‘You ain’t shit. You weren’t this, you weren’t that.’ I’m like, ‘F*ck you, dude. I’ll go make my money elsewhere.’
“He’s like, ‘F*ck, fine, go do it,’ and guess what? I became the face of Polo Ralph Lauren, I had a worldwide commercial, I had (my face in) every airport in the world, and then Dana and the UFC were like, ‘Oh, can we give you this? Can we give you that?’ I did it so I could have leverage and respect. That’s why I did that. That was the whole point of that situation, and I got some back. But then I got a lot of disrespect from it because the whole world is just naive and they paint the picture for what they want the world to believe.”
Rockhold’s return against Costa came after a layoff of more than three years. Although Rockhold said he can’t do it anymore and he’s too old, he finds himself constantly in the gym after undergoing ankle surgery.
