Skip to main content

Ex-UFC champ Luke Rockhold hints that next career move imminent after BKFC 41 loss

Luke Rockhold may be finding a new home soon.

Rockhold, who commentated at Karate Combat 40 alongside UFC Hall of Famer Bas Rutten this past Saturday in Miami, has enjoyed the perks of life outside the UFC. The former Strikeforce and UFC middleweight champion parted ways with the UFC in 2022 after asking for his release, and he most recently competed in April when he suffered a second-round TKO loss to Mike Perry at BKFC 41.

After the fight, Rockhold confirmed that he wasn’t done fighting, although what would come next remained uncertain. Now Rockhold has a better idea.

“It’s the best,” Rockhold told Cageside Press of free agency. “You get the best of all worlds. I can fight wherever I want, and whatever appeals to me the most is where I’m gonna go. The opponent, the stage, the situation, and of course, the payday. But this is looking good.”

When asked about potentially signing with Karate Combat, 38-year-old Rockhold said there have been some discussions.

“We talked. You never know,” Rockhold said. “Talk is talk. Talk is talk, but I like to walk the walk. We’re talking. We’re not walking yet, but maybe we can get to run soon. We’re setting kick records, you know what I mean? Coming off the couch. Easy.”

Rockhold briefly retired after losing a Fight of the Night decision to Paulo Costa at UFC 278 in August 2022. However, his decision didn’t last long when he came out of retirement to face Perry in a bare-knuckle boxing match, which didn’t go his way.

The BKFC contract Rockhold signed gives him the freedom to do MMA, boxing, grappling or any combat sport other than bare-knuckle boxing.



from MMA Junkie https://ift.tt/A6BxERg
via IFTTT

Popular posts from this blog

Burmese fighter: Joshua Van details pioneering journey to plant Myanmar's flag on UFC turf

Joshua Van remembers asking his mother why they had to live in Houston. Why couldn’t they just go back home where things were familiar? He was 12 years old at the time, and Van wanted to go back to where he lived the first decade of his life, in Myanmar. Life wasn’t easy for an undersized pre-teen who spoke little English and was picked on during school for both of those attributes. Looking back, the math adds up that he’d become the first Burmese fighter to compete in the UFC. “I was a small kid,” Van recently told MMA Junkie. “From where I come from, you get picked on. It’s kind of like I fight everyday, and I got to the point where I enjoyed fighting. I watched clips on street fights and how to win street fights. I tried it in my next fight and things like that. That’s what got me into my career.” Van grew up one of five siblings in Myanmar, a country ridden with military and political conflict . When things increasingly worsened, Van’s parents decided to move to Malaysia. Van...

Video: Oli Thompson lands devastating first-round knockout punch on Aleksei Oleinik in Russia

Aleksei Oleinik returned to action for the first time since his UFC exit, but things did not go in his favor. In the main event of REN TV Fight Club at Dynamo Volleyball Arena in Moscow, Russia, Oleinik (60-17-1 MMA) faced fellow UFC veteran Oli Thompson in a heavyweight bout. The result was a violent finish that left Oleinik staring up at the lights. Thompson (21-16 MMA) unleashed a crushing right hand that sent Oleinik crashing to the canvas with 35 seconds remaining in the opening round. Check out video of the finish below (via Twitter ): Oli Thompson destroys Alexey Oleynik with a massive right hand in the first round pic.twitter.com/AdWy25dQxR — caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) May 26, 2023 Thompson, 43, returned to the win column for the first time since 2020, snapping a four-fight losing skid. His last victory was also a first-round stoppage; a 23-second knockout of Szymon Bajor at Fight Exclusive Night 28 on June 13, 2020. Oleinik, 45, competed in his final UFC bout in Octo...

Logan Paul, KSI to fight (separately) as part of Misfits Boxing 'The Prime Card'

Logan Paul and KSI will top an upcoming Misfits Boxing card entitled “The Prime Card,” they announced Friday on social media . The event takes place Oct. 14 at AO Arena in Manchester, England and streams on DAZN pay-per-view. Opponents for the two influencers-turned-boxers have not yet been announced. It is unclear if the bouts will be professional or exhibition. Paul, 28, has not competed in a professional boxing match since he fought and lost to  KSI in November 2019. The bout was a rematch of an August 2018 amateur fight which ended in a draw. In June 2021, Paul competed in an exhibition bout against Floyd Mayweather and went all eight rounds in a non-scored bout. While he’s been relatively inactive in boxing, Paul has thrilled fans with his athleticism in intermittent appearances in pro wrestling bouts for WWE. KSI, 30, has competed four times since the pro bout against Paul. All four of those matches were exhibitions. KSI won three of them inside the distance, while a f...