Luke Rockhold won’t be fighting in bare-knuckle ever again.
Rockhold fought Mike Perry at BFKC 41 in April of 2023 in his bare-knuckle debut. The former UFC middleweight champion ended up losing by second-round TKO due to retirement. Looking back on the fight, Rockhold doesn’t believe bare-knuckle is a sport.
“Bare-knuckle boxing is not a fight,” Rockhold told MMA Fighting. “I realized I [walked in there], I’m not losing my f*cking teeth without using everything I’ve worked for my whole life. People are f*cking dumb. That’s a dumbass sport. Metal [ropes] that you just hit, and they throw you back into the brawl. There’s no way to gauge that distance, and it’s like who’s willing to lose their face first for f*cking nothing.”
Rockhold thinks there isn’t much skill involved in bare-knuckle, which is why he doesn’t like it.
Luke Rockhold would want bare-knuckle kickboxing
Although Luke Rockhold doesn’t have a desire to do bare-knuckle boxing, there is one way to get him back.
Rockhold says he’d rematch Mike Perry if they could do bare-knuckle kickboxing, as with kicks to help the range, he feels like he’d beat up Perry.
“One thing that I would do that I think is way more badass, and not so f*cking stupid, because you can’t gauge distance in bare-knuckle boxing,” Rockhold said. “I would do bare-knuckle kickboxing, I would f*cking rematch Mike Perry and put him to sleep. I don’t think he wants that.
“There’s no way to gauge distance in bare-knuckle boxing, and they’ve got metal ropes, you’re just bouncing in and out. Bare-knuckle kickboxing, I think there would actually be some technique to it, and I think that would be badass,” Rockhold added. “That would be a real, real fight. That would be fun. I’d f*ck somebody up in that.”
Luke Rockhold is set to return to combat sports at a Misfits Boxing event on Aug. 30 against Darren Till. He’s coming off a TKO win over Joe Schilling in Karate Combat back in April.
