Ever since Luke Rockhold confirmed he’s not ready to hang up the gloves just yet, he’s made it clear he’d be down to fight Chris Weidman again. But the way the latter sees it, following his win last weekend, Rockhold has some work to do before that happens.
Weidman questions timing of Rockhold rematch
Not long ago, Rockhold announced that he isn’t retiring, and he also said he’s interested in fighting Weidman again. Following Weidman’s grinding win over Omari Akhmedov last weekend, Rockhold trashed the former champ’s performance and repeated his callout.
Weidman recently spoke with ESPN’s Ariel Helwani. While discussing the possibility of fighting Rockhold for a second time, the decorated wrestler didn’t sound overly interested (quotes via MMA Mania).
“I don’t know what that does for me. It’s a fight that I get a win back. But he hasn’t done much in a while.
He is coming off retirement a win over him doesn’t do much for me and I really want to put myself in title contention,” he said.
“Id rather fight a guy who is up in the rankings more. I don’t know. I am not completely opposed to it but I’m not really sure what makes sense right now.”
“For him to just come right back and have a fight against me, a big, big fight, he should put some work in.”
On one hand, you can kind of understand where Weidman’s coming from. Rockhold is coming off back-to-back, KO losses, and he hasn’t won a fight since 2017.
Weidman, meanwhile, just defeated the #11 ranked middleweight in the division and Rockhold isn’t in the top 15.
But, you could certainly make the argument that if Weidman avenged his 2015 loss to Rockhold, it would actually do a fair bit for him. After all, Rockhold is a former champ and he remains a big name.
Weidman comments on his run of setbacks
The Rockhold rematch aside, there’s no doubt that Weidman’s win over Akhmedov was huge. Weidman had lost two straight heading into the bout, and five of his last six fights.
But, those losses did come against notable opponents in the likes of “Jacare” Souza, Yoel Romero, Dominick Reyes, Gegard Mousasi and the aforementioned Rockhold.
“A lot of the guys I was in there, the only losses I have are against Top 5 guys and I was competitive with all of them.
Other than the Reyes fight, I will give him that, it was too quick to say I was competitive.
“But every 185 pounder I have been competitive against them and I am right in there with them,” he continued.
“But you got to win that night, get your hand raised. It was just a lot of pressure to get my freaking hand raised.”
It will be interesting to see where the 36-year-old goes from here. Does the New York fighter have another championship run in him?
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