Luke Rockhold wants a piece of fellow former UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland.
Rockhold (16-6 MMA, 6-5 UFC), 39, parted ways with the UFC after losing a Fight of the Night brawl against Paulo Costa in August 2022. He was frustrated watching Strickland beat Costa in this past Saturday’s UFC 302 co-main event.
Rockhold doesn’t enjoy watching Strickland fight and would love to throw down with him in the octagon.
“If you were Dana White, would you ever want this guy fighting back for a title? I can’t stand watching this motherf*cker fight,” Rockhold said on the “JAXXON PODCAST.” “F*cking book me. Sign me up, Dana. I will f*cking end this kid’s life, I guarantee.”
Rockhold mouthed off on the UFC in the lead-up to his fight with Costa, so he isn’t sure if they’re on good terms – but he’s open to reconciling.
“(Strickland) just wants to get into like a brawl every time because he’s got that style (where) he comes from such weird angles that he wins a lot of those exchanges,” Rockhold said of Strickland. “He’s going to try and wear you out, but you’ve got to go high, low, you’ve got to wrestle with him. Dana gives me that hall pass, I’ll come in, I will step on that kid’s face.
“I left and obviously if a lot of people paid attention, they saw that week (leading up to) Paulo Costa I had a lot of things to say. I’ve been gone for a while, and I felt like I was mistreated a bit and so – everything is gone. Water under the bridge, but I don’t know if they want to deal with me. But if we did deal, I’d deal right.”
Rockhold and Strickland were booked to fight at UFC 268, but the fight was scrapped when Rockhold withdrew due to a back injury. The pair sparred before, and Rockhold is confident he’d get the better of him on the ground.
“I’ve worked with Strickland. He’s weird, he’s awkward, but he ain’t that good,” Rockhold said. “He’s got decent wrestling, he’s got decent defensive jiu-jitsu. Like, he just gets up. He knows how to get up. He’s decent with that. That’s what he does well.”
Strickland’s loud and unfiltered mouth also rubs Rockhold the wrong way.
“I hate that guy,” Rockhold said. “I know a lot of people look at me, and they just hate me. I see this f*cking kid’s face every time, and it’s just disgusting. He’s a fake little b*tch. He doesn’t even know who he is. I don’t think he believes the sh*t he’s saying these days. He’s just spouting off.”
After losing to Costa, Rockhold signed with BKFC and suffered a TKO loss to Mike Perry in April 2023. Rockhold then picked up his first combat sports win in years when he knocked out Joe Schilling this past April at Karate Combat 45.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 302.
