Luke Rockhold (photo via UFC/YouTube)

By FCF Staff

Luke Rockhold doesn’t sound overly keen on fighting Sean Strickland. But, following the latter’s win over Uriah Hall, Rockhold says he’s now open to fighting Strickland, provided its part of a big card.

Strickland outstruck Hall last weekend at UFC Vegas 33 for the decision win, and in doing so, he’s moved into the #8 spot of the UFC’s middleweight rankings. More recently, Rockhold spoke with Submission Radio, and he confirmed that the UFC’s offer him a fight with Strickland.

In addition, the former middleweight champ relayed that this isn’t the first time the UFC inquired about him fighting Strickland (quotes via MMA Junkie).

“They offered me Sean actually a while back,” Rockhold said. “And I just wasn’t interested because he’s just a f*cking nobody. It wasn’t the fight I wanted. It didn’t make any sense. No one knew of him, and I didn’t give two f*cks about him. And now it’s like Dana’s trying to piss me off with it. And now he’s obviously been out there, he beat Uriah Hall, he looked decent and he took a ranking. So there’s something to work with I guess now.

“And everybody else, everybody else is really … they offered it to Uriah. Uriah chose Strickland instead of me. They offered the (Khamzat) Chimaev fight. Obviously that didn’t come to be. I liked that, too – that was exciting. That kind of got me up. I don’t know. This is what we have, and there were some other fights they kind of dicked around with. So this is seemingly going to happen. We’ve just got to get a good fight date and something that’s f*ckin’ sexy and timely.”

The 36-year-old Rockhold also floated the possibility of the fight taking place at the UFC’s November 6 card in New York City, at Madison Square Garden.

“I didn’t get exactly what (I wanted). It’s maybe not the fight that I exactly wanted. But you give me the right card. There’s still things that have to be worked out and have to be ironed out. It’s not a done deal. So put me on MSG. Put me on something big. Put me on something fun. Put me on something that makes me get up for it, because I’m not coming back for no reason.”

Rockhold (16-5) hasn’t competed since July, 2019, when he was knocked out by now, current, light heavyweight champ, Jan Blachowicz.

Strickland (24-3), meanwhile, has won five straight.