Kemo
08-08-2017, 07:25 PM
Former middleweight champion Luke Rockhold has opened up on the extreme measures he went to in order to land a fight
Rockhold returns from a yearlong layoff on Sept. 16 when he squares off against David Branch at UFC Fight Night 116.
While the former champ had expected a big fight in his return to the octagon, a series of frustrations culminated in a match up with #9 ranked middleweight, Branch. While the 32-year-old is happy to get the ball rolling, there were frustrating moments prior to the fight being announced:
“Really what it comes down to is, I can’t wait anymore,” Rockhold said Monday on The MMA Hour. “I had the thought process of waiting for that fight. In June it was Anderson Silva in Rio, he wouldn’t take the fight. Then they moved onto Gegard Mousasi, couldn’t get him to sign the fight. I mean, I went to 205, to Shogun (Rua), to try to get (Fabricio) Werdum (at heavyweight). I’ve tried to get everybody I could possibly think about to get a fight that really got me up, but no one would take a fight, and now we’ve come down to David Branch was the only guy in the top-10 that would take a fight, from June to July to August to September, and it’s time.”
Rockhold returns from a yearlong layoff on Sept. 16 when he squares off against David Branch at UFC Fight Night 116.
While the former champ had expected a big fight in his return to the octagon, a series of frustrations culminated in a match up with #9 ranked middleweight, Branch. While the 32-year-old is happy to get the ball rolling, there were frustrating moments prior to the fight being announced:
“Really what it comes down to is, I can’t wait anymore,” Rockhold said Monday on The MMA Hour. “I had the thought process of waiting for that fight. In June it was Anderson Silva in Rio, he wouldn’t take the fight. Then they moved onto Gegard Mousasi, couldn’t get him to sign the fight. I mean, I went to 205, to Shogun (Rua), to try to get (Fabricio) Werdum (at heavyweight). I’ve tried to get everybody I could possibly think about to get a fight that really got me up, but no one would take a fight, and now we’ve come down to David Branch was the only guy in the top-10 that would take a fight, from June to July to August to September, and it’s time.”