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MMA

23rd Mar 2017

Former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold surprisingly calls out one of the greatest heavyweights ever

He's only 50 pounds lighter than him

Ben Kiely

Luke Rockhold, man, this is not a good idea!

We haven’t seen Luke Rockhold inside the Octagon since that old bitch destiny reared its ugly head, rendered him unconscious and grabbed hold of his belt at UFC 199.

While sitting on the sidelines nursing that headache Michael Bisping’s haymaker left him with, he has been forced to watch ‘the Count’ absolutely explode. A huge title defence against retiring legend Dan Henderson in Manchester will be followed by a superfight against arguably the greatest ever, George St-Pierre.

Meanwhile, Rockhold has no fight booked, but with the division’s elite already matched up with fights, he’s looking two weight classes above his own for his next challenge, as he explained on UFC Tonight.

“Everyone’s steaming over this new fight I brought up. I think me and (Fabricio) Werdum got some old beef from Strikeforce. He’s a guy I’ve always wanted to fight. I’ve thought it through and I like the style match-up.”

There’s not many contenders for the greatest heavyweight in MMA history. You’re looking at the likes of Fedor Emelianenko, Cain Velasquez, Stipe Miocic and of course, Fabricio Werdum. Despite tipping the scales at around 50 lbs lighter than Werdum, Rockhold is willing to move up and take him on in the Brazilian’s division.

“Given what’s going on in the middleweight division right now, screw that, I’m coming to heavyweight. Let’s do this.”

“I don’t know if I’ll dance around too long (at heavyweight). It’s a fight I really want and I think it makes a lot of sense. We can settle that.”

On what planet does it make sense?