Luke Rockhold has shared the mat with some of the UFC's biggest legends.
The former middleweight champion's rise to the top coincided with sparring sessions against fellow world champions Khabib Nurmagomedov, Daniel Cormier and Cain Velasquez.
As a big fighter at 185 pounds, Luke Rockhold is well equipped to defend himself against 'The Eagle' and his brutal wrestling, but Cormier and Velasquez had the size to make his life miserable in the gym.
However, he says one of the former UFC heavyweight champions gave him a much harder time in sparring than the other.
Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Luke Rockhold remembers sparring with the 'insane' Cain Velasquez
During a recent appearance on the Jaxxon podcast, Rockhold was asked if he did a lot of sparring with Cormier and Velasquez, who compete two weight classes above him.
The 40-year-old revealed that he spent more time on the mat with 'DC' because he couldn't really be competitive when sparring with Velasquez.
Cormier is only 6-foot-4 and spent much of his Hall of Fame career competing at light heavyweight, so he was much easier to get along with than the 6-foot-4, 245-pound Velasquez.
“Cain was no fun,” Rockhold admitted. “I had to have Javier [Mendez] Put a damn leash on Cain, ready to pull that motherfucker.
“You know, I was going to get him a little bit in the first round, his size and his speed… All he had was wrestling, striking, Jiu Jitsu. He had everything, DC had wrestling.
“I can play the longer game and get away with kicks and punches. And then he took me down and he couldn't do much, so I was able to get back up and we had some very competitive sparring.
“Cain, he was just bigger and had everything. At that time there was no one who could touch Cain. I mean, he was fucking insane.”
Luke Rockhold signs with Global Fight League
A brand new MMA promotion called the Global Fight League is set to launch in 2025, with several household names and former UFC champions confirmed to be part of the roster.
Reaction to the Global Fight League announcement has been mixed, with fans praising the new team-based model and pay structure but criticizing the focus on many former UFC stars – many of whom are now well into their 30s or early 40s.
Rockhold joins fellow former UFC champions Tyron Woodley, Benson Henderson, Anthony Pettis, Andrei Arlovski, Frank Mir, Fabricio Werdum and Junior dos Santos in the new promotion.
Dana White's MMA competition released Rockhold after three straight losses, the latest against Paulo Costa at UFC 278 in August 2022.
He has since tried bare-knuckle boxing. Unfortunately, that didn't end well when Mike Perry cut his teeth in a second-round TKO debut loss at BKFC 41 in February 2023.
More recently, Rockhold returned to victory by stopping Joe Schilling with strikes at Karate Combat 45, which took place in April in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Now he will fight under MMA rules for the first time in three years.
Only time will tell if Rockhold still has something to offer to the sport that made him famous.
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