Luke Rockhold Details “Nightmare” That Forced Him Out Of UFC 230

Former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold was looking forward to meeting Chris Weidman for a second time this Saturday at UFC 230.

An injury, though, forced Rockhold to bow out of the planned co-main event from Madison Square Garden in New York City. His return is unknown at this time to the Octagon.

“It was a tough one to accept, but that’s why you have coaching staff and good people around you to kind of guide you in the right way,” Rockhold said during a recent interview with Submission Radio. “Man, I didn’t want to accept this fight going away. I wanted it every (expletive) inch of it. So, I tried everything I could, but unfortunately it’s just too much to work around. I gotta be able to walk into Madison Square Garden, I can’t crawl.

“So, the leg injury has been a (expletive) nightmare. A complete nightmare. It was a misinformed surgery. Unfortunately, I was misguided by a couple of doctors, and I wouldn’t say malpractice, but it was a pretty idiotic move to open me up on the blade of my shin where they did, and everything I learned thus far. It seemed like a superficial surgery, and that’s why I went ahead with it. And sure enough it’s been one of the worst things that I’ve ever dealt with in my life. So, I really can’t make any contact with it. It’s on the blade of my shin and it’s such a… like, I was in jeopardy of so many things with this leg and its repercussions if I were to go out there and this thing opened up and an infection got into the bone.

“It’s just not worth it. I didn’t kick. The whole camp I didn’t use my left leg to kick. And so unfortunately after Vegas I got an infection on my way back home. And then as I thought the leg was doing better and it would be ready to go, it backtracked and opened up and then it was in jeopardy again. It was red, it was inflamed and it was dangerous, cause the skin has to build up. So anyway, I’m trying to heal that up. And, you know, I broke my nose in a grappling exchange. I got caught with a wild elbow. And so I was working around both of those, man. It was just too many things. And then on top of that, you know, I’m switching my stance to work with that and sparring with a cage around my face, and ended up spraining my knee, trying to force that.

“So I think it was a sign in the end that I have to… I wanted to work around every angle I could, but this is, that was it. That was the last straw. And the coaches have been trying to push me out of this fight for some time, and come the sprained knee, it was a sign. I don’t think it’s much of anything. It’s gonna be two to three weeks for the knee, but everything else needs significant time to heal.”