Outside Source
Earlier this year, Luke
Rockhold hinted that he
might be getting the itch to fight again. Now, the former UFC
middleweight champion’s return is all but official.
Rockhold confirmed to
ESPN that he hopes to compete in the UFC before the end of
2020. The American Kickboxing Academy standout is currently
recovering from shoulder surgery after undergoing a procedure to
repair a torn labrum and rotator cuff earlier this year.
The 35-year-old Californian last appeared at UFC 239 in July 2019,
when he suffered a second-round knockout loss to Jan
Blachowicz in his light heavyweight debut. Rockhold suffered a
broken jaw in the bout. Last November, while not officially
announcing his retirement, Rockhold said that he
didn’t have the passion for fighting that he once did.
Rockhold told ESPN that he has decided to come back now simply,
“Because I felt like it.”
Rockhold plans on returning to middleweight for his next UFC
appearance. He said that he would be interested in a rematch with
Chris
Weidman, who earned a unanimous decision against Omari
Akhmedov at UFC Fight Night 174 over the weekend. Rockhold will
split his camp between AKA and Sanford MMA in South Florida.
Rockhold first rose to prominence when he captured the Strikeforce
185-pound championship with a decision over Ronaldo
Souza in 2011. He defended the belt twice before the promotion
closed its doors. Rockhold won five of his first six UFC
appearances, culminating in a fourth-round stoppage of Weidman in a
middleweight title bout at UFC 194. Rockhold would lose the belt in
a shocking first-round KO loss in a rematch with Michael
Bisping one bout later. Including the loss to Bisping, Rockhold
has dropped three of his last four UFC appearances – all via KO or
TKO.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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