Luke Rockhold revealed Sean Strickland has indeed been offered to him, but the fight is not a done deal yet.
In a recent interview with TSN, Dana White said the UFC is trying to make a fight between Rockhold and Strickland happen, but is waiting on the former UFC middleweight champion to accept.
While Rockhold (16-5 MMA, 6-4 UFC) says no date has been offered, he seems to have settled for the matchup with Strickland (24-3 MMA, 11-3 UFC).
“I think Dana’s trying make it harder than it has to be, obviously just because of my outspokenness on different things,” Rockhold told Submission Radio. “But this kid Sean has been offered (to me). So, I mean, they’re trying to do something. I haven’t heard any dates or anything like that, but that is something they’re interested in. And yeah, let’s do it. I mean, he’s not the most … he took a ranking, he did his thing, but he doesn’t help himself in any way, shape or form with his style and his performance on mics.”
Rockhold has been chomping at the bit to return, but has had a hard time finding an opponent that reignites his fire. He admitted Strickland wasn’t the fight he was initially hoping for, but after his recent win over Season 17 “Ultimate Fighter” finalist Uriah Hall, he became a little more intriguing.
“They offered me Sean actually a while back,” Rockhold said. “And I just wasn’t interested because he’s just a f*cking nobody. It wasn’t the fight I wanted. It didn’t make any sense. No one knew of him, and I didn’t give two f*cks about him. And now it’s like Dana’s trying to piss me off with it. And now he’s obviously been out there, he beat Uriah Hall, he looked decent and he took a ranking. So there’s something to work with I guess now.
“And everybody else, everybody else is really … they offered it to Uriah. Uriah chose Strickland instead of me. They offered the (Khamzat) Chimaev fight. Obviously that didn’t come to be. I liked that, too – that was exciting. That kind of got me up. I don’t know. This is what we have, and there were some other fights they kind of dicked around with. So this is seemingly going to happen. We’ve just got to get a good fight date and something that’s f*ckin’ sexy and timely.”
Rockhold has reiterated that coming back has to be worth his while. Although he’s lost three of his past four bouts, they’ve all come to either champions or former title challengers.
“I want a fight that’s intriguing. I’ve done my thing, I’ve been champion of two different divisions. I’ve taken my time away. I’ve been through lots of surgeries, and it’s like, I want something that’s going to get me fired up. And it just keeps falling through. And they’re like, ‘Sean Strickland.’ I’m like, ‘Who the f*ck is Sean Strickland? What the f*ck are you talking about?’ Is that going to make me come back?
“And so I was like, ‘You better give me something better than that.’ And nothing came to be. And month after month, it’s just like they f*ckin’ gave me a couple other options, and then those two options fell through, and everyone’s being a b*tch about every other option, and so here we go. This is it. F*ck it. I don’t care. The kid did his thing. He f*ckin’ got something of a name, I guess, got a little momentum – I’ll f*ckin’ take it.”
The 36-year-old hasn’t competed since getting knocked out by current UFC light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz in July 2019. Rockhold knows he’s no spring chicken, which is why he’s hoping his return materializes before the end of the year – and he wants it to be in front of a sold-out crowd.
“I’m older and I need time to put everything aside in my life and just go full force to give it my best opportunity to get in there,” Rockhold said. “So I mean, October, November – it’s probably the most likely story here at this point. I know they’ve got Madison Square Garden (in November), but it sounds like a lot of things are getting mixed back up and, you know, might pull back. Fighting in front of a crowd was the big thing for me, and I wanted to get back into a stadium and make it feel right. And going back into the (UFC) Apex just doesn’t sound f*ckin’ cool, doesn’t sound like a good return. So I don’t know. We’ll see. I haven’t got a fight date. How can you offer me an opponent? You’ve got to give me a fight date.
“I didn’t get exactly what (I wanted). It’s maybe not the fight that I exactly wanted. But you give me the right card. There’s still things that have to be worked out and have to be ironed out. It’s not a done deal. So put me on MSG. Put me on something big. Put me on something fun. Put me on something that makes me get up for it, because I’m not coming back for no reason.”
Luke Rockhold confirms he’s been offered ‘f*cking idiot’ Sean Strickland for UFC return fight
