Luke Rockhold is officially done with the middleweight division.
The former middleweight champion originally intended to move up to the light heavyweight division sooner, but a rematch against Chris Weidman at Madison Square Garden was offered and then Rockhold decided to delay his plans to jump to the 205-pound division.
However, the bout never took place as Rockhold was forced to withdraw from UFC 230 due to continuing complications with his injured leg that had been surgically repaired. Speaking recently with Submission Radio, Rockhold made it clear that the 185 pound division is now in his past:
“I think I rushed into the fight at Madison Square Garden,” Rockhold said. “They really wanted that match-up with Weidman at Madison Square and I liked it a lot, and I think I just made myself believe that I could make it happen. It was far too soon for my leg. There’s just so much internal healing in the scar, and the scar is just finally sealing up over the top. And then there’s all the underlying issues. And it’s right on the bone, and so if I were to kick, even at this point, it’s still fairly dangerous that the whole thing could just open up like a big female wound on my shin, like an axe wound. I’m not gonna lie, I don’t know how else to put it. It could be really bad, and I’m not really willing to risk a fight at this point just due to that.
“So, I’m trying to heal. I got some stem cells injected back into it. And then my knee, that really kind of took me out of the fight, it was the last thing I was kind of working around everything else, it’s a little more than I thought too. It’s a small tear of my PCL and my ACL, so I’ve been trying to work around it. And I reinjured and hurt it a little bit, so I just noticed that I gotta back off for at least six more weeks probably now and move up, move up and get stronger. I’m just training every day. I’m lifting, so getting stronger. Getting stronger is the recipe, light heavyweight is the course. I’m coming for these guys, man. I’m just not really impressed with what’s going on right now in that division and I’m tired of compromising my body. And I’m a better fighter where I fight naturally and bigger and I’m long overdue moving up and I’m done with middleweight. It’s time to move up.”
Rockhold believes that the injuries he's gone through are in part by the trauma he put his body through just to make it to the 185-pound limit. Check out the full interview with the former middleweight champion below.