“Khamzat didn’t take that fight”- Luke Rockhold reveals Khamzat Chimaev turned down an event headliner against him
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Khamzat Chimaev and Luke Rockhold
Luke Rockhold, who became the middleweight Champion after defeating Chris Weidman has been out of action since his last fight against Jan Blachowiczh in July of 2019, where he lost to a brutal KO at the hands of the Polish fighter.
Rockhold still believes he can recapture his middleweight title and thinks he has the style to match up against the Stylebender, he was itching to make a comeback for a long time, and now he is booked to face the former middleweight title challenger, Paulo Costa.
Paulo Costa has been out of action since his five-round epic against Marvin Vettori at the Apex. Pre-fight shenanigans aside, the fight proved that Paulo Costa always comes out to put on a show, which may be the reason the UFC has granted him the opportunity to climb up the contender’s ladder fast.
These two have holds a grudge against each other, and Luke, in an interview with ESPN showed the signed contract to fight Costa, and now fans cant wait to see these two in action.
Related – Paulo Costa and Luke Rockhold set to go head to head at an August date
“We need to get the belt”- Luke Rockhold will do everything in his power to reclaim the middleweight throne
While Luke was exploring his options for his return, he called out the rising prospect, Khamzat Chimaev. Chimaev was calling out UFC athletes left and right at that time, and Rockhold thought it would be a fun fight. Surprisingly enough, Khamzat declined the fight offer, and Rockhold said this after the news came to light. “All respect but I thought he would fight anyone.”
Talking about Khamzat in this interview he said, “Khamzat didn’t take that fight, by the way. We were set to fight, he wanted to stay at 170. It was a wise move for him at this point.”
Luke is looking to win the title, and he wanted to do things properly. “It’s not that we don’t want the fight. But we want to choose a weight class, and then go for the belt in that weight,” Rockhold claimed. “We don’t have a problem fighting anyone, but it has to be in one weight, and going for the belt. If we jump up and down, left and right, we’re never going to get that belt. So we have a mission, we need to get the belt.”
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Suryansh Thakur
(1600 Articles Published)