Former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold has addressed his most recent loss.

The promotion originally announced that UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker would make his first defense against Rockhold at UFC 221.

However, he was forced to withdraw from the fight due to an undisclosed injury. Thus, the reason the promotion booked an interim title fight at the upcoming pay-per-view event.

As seen in the main event of Saturday’s UFC 221 pay-per-view event in at Perth Arena in Perth, Australia, Yoel Romero was able to score a knockout win over Rockhold.

Despite the fact that this fight was supposed to be for the interim title and it that got thrown out the window after Romero missed weight two days ago, at the end of the day, this was a #1 contender’s fight to see who would challenge Whittaker for the middleweight title next and that will be Romero.

Some fight fans could make the case that Rockhold held the upper hand in the fight just before he was caught with a series of strikes by Romero, which ultimately led to Rockhold going down and this fight being over. It’s been a tough stretch for Rockhold, who has lost two out of his last three fights.

Although he didn’t want to talk to the media after the fight, he did decide to take to his official Twitter account to sound off on the loss as well as praise Romero for his performance inside of the Octagon at the pay-per-view event.

Respect to Yoel that man is made of steel.

— Luke Rockhold (@LukeRockhold) February 11, 2018