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Bloody Elbow

Luke Rockhold Says With Brock Lesnar Retired, Time to Focus on 'True Fighters'

Photo via Esther Lin / MMAFighting.com

Photo via Esther Lin / MMAFighting.com

Luke Rockhold takes to the Strikeforce cage tomorrow night for a middleweight title defense against Keith Jardine. The bout represents a chance for Rockhold to continue his attempt to emerge as one of the faces of the "new Strikeforce."

But in addition to talking about the fight with Jardine, Rockhold is also finding time to talk about the biggest story in MMA at the moment, the retirement of the UFC's Brock Lesnar. And what Luke had to say on ESPN 1100 in Las Vegas was not particularly kind to the big man (Via Yahoo! Sports):

"Did you see him singing the rap country? When he started rapping along to the country song I was like ' what the hell is this guy doing?' I almost saw his lip quivering as he was walking into the cage. He just looked like he was playing a role. He was kind of believing his own hype that people were putting in his ear. I saw true confidence out of Overeem and a true fighter,"

...

"I think he brought a whole new audience to the sport. So I can't exactly say it's a negative. People really need to see who the true fighters are. Lesnar's not the best in the world. He just got the right matchups and the right fights,"

Might not exactly be untrue, but ouch.

SBN coverage of Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine

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Comments

"I almost saw his lip quivering as he was walking into the cage."

Yeah he looked noticeably uncomfortable coming in. Good to see someone in MMA notice too.

I think he looked off the whole week of the fight.

I really don’t think he wanted any part of Overeem. Rockhold obviously goes a little overboard with all that true fighter business, but I think he’s dead on that Brock wanted out of that cage with a quickness.

I Concur.

Screw getting Uberkneed.

If that was the case

he would have never agreed to the fight in the first place

I don't think that's a given

He got paid a king’s ransom to show up for that fight. It doesn’t mean that his heart was in it.

I'm about 190 lbs

and I would have gotten in the cage against reem for what Brock got paid. Sure he would have bounced me around with Uberknees like a hacky sack. But I would have gotten PAID!

Exactly.

And when he got kicked in the kidney, it was time to get that paycheck.

Yup

Cover up, take a shot or two (hopefully to the body where they won’t do permanent damage) get pounded on a little, tap to strikes, and head straight to the Mercedes dealership (after a quick trip to the hospital).

Also, your sig is awesome.

Thanks!

It’s just how I roll.

With what brock will total out after PPV Cut and Sponsorship I’d head to the Aston Martins after buying a sick house out here on the beach in CA.

An Overeem body strike to a normal person has a pretty good chance of doing permanent damager

and to a man with diverticulitis it could do a whole lot of damage.
remember though

it’s money that he doesn’t really even need. why get your ass kicked for a another mil or two when you already have it in the bank? There’s a lot easier ways he could make money

I don't know where I got the idea

but I thought he was somewhere about 5 mil a showing after everything. I don’t remember and I’m not citing anything. either way, the actual number of millions doesn’t matter; it’s still millions, just about everybody who’s not in the 20 million+ club (in the bank) can always use a couple more mil. I can’t think of anything “easier” to pad your bank account than that fight.

Let’s say he put in a mediocre training camp, showed up, and fought for under 3 min. I can’t think of anything easier to make a couple mil than this. Sure he’s walking around, or sitting around hurting right now but he knew damn well who he was fighting and what was going to happen, not “likely” to happen. He was prepared to take the beating and cash the checks.

If he wasn’t prepared to take that beating he would have tried much harder to get the fight to the ground than that half hearted single leg.

Who knows how much knowing he'd retire if he lost affected him, too

Never make that decision ahead of time, puts you in a bad place psychologically.

Its just like when you get a case of Senioritis.

Of if you put in a 2 weeks notice.

Put in my two weeks notice two weeks ago.

Today’s my last day, and the last week has been… liberating.

So i guess right now if your boss asked you to get punched in the face

you would be less than thrilled.

Hey,

Me too! Last day today, first day Monday.

I envy you.

I have spent 3 years resigning everyday but somehow still showing up the next.

Dude

Exact same here, terrible market in CA right now. Been looking everyday for something around the same $. Nothing worth going for….

Bad market in Chicagoland, unless you are cop, crook, or Derrick Rose! Watch my Bulls smash Orlando tonight!

Start my new job on 23 January.

Heading down to Marine Corps Officer Candidate School in Quantico, VA.

Yeah Congrats bro
Awesome - good luck.

Nothing but trained killers on “The Voices in Paul Harris’ Head.”

Good luck, keep your nose clean.

Lots of good places sorta (not really) near Quantico to train BJJ, too.

Good luck man, OCS is no joke.

But the brotherhood is all worth it.

FUCK YES CONGRATULATIONS ON MISSING YOUR FUCKING PICKS DICKASS

Congrats on the whole OCS thing too, thank you for your service to our country, but really all I give a fuck about is that this is GREAT FUCKING NEWS for the Yardboiz (and girl).

Nonsense, I get libo on weekends.

My picks will still be in.

I had a second job once designing marinas in my hometown and in the bahamas

They decided they wanted a full timer instead of a part timer and gave me two weeks to stay and pick up some extra cash. One Friday I went in and I sat there with nothing to do for 2 hours. Lunch time came and I left. They called at about 2:00 and asked if I was coming back. I said “no” and that was that. Talk about liberating. Bunch of dick weasels.

Even if he wasnt a true fighter, he did bring a lot of fans.

No matter what, the UFC is a business. Money is the bottom line. I would be surprised if they focused on actual talent to promote when a no talent monster brought in so much revenue.

Give me a break.

I find it laughable that Rockhold has the audacity to say that Lesnar isn’t a “true fighter”. Lesnar certainly had his flaws and he wasn’t the greatest HW of all time that ppl thought he might be or made him out to be. However he retires with wins over Randy Couture, Frank Mir, Shane Carwin, and Heath Herring, all top 10 fighters at the time. Every time he stepped into the Octagon Lesnar fought the very best. Not many people can say the same thing.

Since Zuffa's acquisition of SF...

A few SF fighters have been walking around with a chip on the shoulder.
I understand why. But Rockfold is a little too brash if you ask me.

However he retires with wins over Randy Couture, Frank Mir, Shane Carwin, and Heath Herring, all top 10 fighters at the time. Every time he stepped into the Octagon Lesnar fought the very best. Not many people can say the same thing.

exactly

how does losing three career fights, one to mir (avenged), one to cain, and one to overeem make you a fake fighter? fucking FEDOR EMELIANENKO has three worse losses than that (arguably). as does just about every other established HW in the world.

if lesnar had taken more fights against people like mark hunt, roy nelson, ben rothwell, kongo, and struve, to say nothing of more borderline HWs, no one would question the guy. he coudl have made millions fighting those guys but he chose to walk away if he coudln’t compete with the best. this makes him a fake fighter?

and i don’t even LIKE lesnar.

Thats a bit silly

I’m sure Mir wasn’t thinking that this guy wasn’t a real fighter when he was under him tasting strawberries. I’m sure Herring didn’t think so when he and his broken orbital went flying across the ring.

Well, before making a final decision

We should see what Min Soo Kim has to say about the subject.

Talking about Brock Lesnar is not the worst way to get people to pay attention to you

Rockhold has got to be, by a large margin, the least visible Zuffa champion, and I’m including the ladies.

least impressive as well.

His judo chop was on a move that never landed.

The Incredible Whiff of Luke Rockhold

Yeah. Sure he technically won a decision against a tough fighter in Jacare, after a long lay-off. But I really wasn’t impressed.. his striking was severely lacking power and bad intent, points fighting IMHO.

He’s more visible than the current SF LHW champ.

I guess Rockhold is not a fan of WWE.

Who is this Luke Reinhart guy?
Dear Keith Jardine

Please be a true fighter and escort this pretender to the gorgeous KJ Noons’ throne that there is only room for one beautiful head of hair in MMA and he is very lucky that Jorge Gurgel showed up in a Jacare mask for that title fight.

OOH a hair vs Hair match. If Luke loses he becomes bald, if Jardine loses off with that whispy beard thing he has and then say no more techno viking for you.
great picture

I was there and Brock looked very uncomfortable, jittery I guess you could call it. Even when he ran around the octagon, Overeem just stood calmly and let him take his time. He seemed….assured if the outcome. Pretty cool

I'd like to see Rockhold in with guys as dangerous as Mir or Carwin in his weight class

Even guys as dangerous as Overeem or Velasquez. He put in a good performance against Jacare who was distracted by outside interests (BJJ comps, I believe), lets see if Rockhold is setting himself up for a fall.

I honestly thought that Jacare edged out Rockhold, not the other way around. If Rockhold beats Jardine though, I assume that he gets Tim Kennedy next. If not the winner of Adlan Amagov vs Robbie Lawler (and I’m predicting Amagov to win that one).

He managed to beat him after more than a year off due to injury and only a few years in the sport. There are probably always outside factors for both fighters going into fights. And would you consider Carwin or Mir more skilled than Jacare?

"He managed to beat him after more than a year off due to injury and only a few years in the sport."

Can say the same about Lesnar vs Carwin. Rockhold’s comments about ‘true fighters’ is nothing but snobbery.

Brock Lesnar wasn’t signed by the UFC to be a good fighter. He was signed because he’s Brock Lesnar and he will be a huge draw. I think people read too much into all this. He’s not that good but it doesn’t matter because he wasn’t suppose to be a world beater. He beat Frank Mir and Shane Carwin but Shane Carwin and Frank Mir both would lose to Alistair Overeem and Junior Dos Santos so its a wash.

So if you remove those two guys his record is commendable at best. I still point to the title shot opportunity after one fight int he UFC against a guy who no longer works for the company as the prime reason for not taking Brock Lesnar serious.

Brock exceeded the UFC’s expectations tenfolds. For a couple of years, he was the best HW in the world, and in the discussion of best HW ever. Nobody ever expected that to happen, including Brock himself.

Shnak you’re mad out of it mate. It’s easy to be the best in the world when you’re given a title shot after one fight in the UFC. And whoever thought for a nanosecond that Brock Lesnar might be the best heavyweight ever was smoking crack and marinated in embalming fluid while drinking vodka mixed with 100% pure cocaine and heroin.

Eh, Lesnar fought Mir & Herring before the Couture fight. If you’re going to be a dick at least try & be right first.

Okay well let’s see he won the Herring fight but lost to Frank Mir the first go round then got the title shot. Actually going 1-1 and getting a title shot sounds worse than going 1-0 and getting a title shot. Thanks Forkboy.

I’m not sure if you’re trying to be funny with the nonsense you spouted at the end there but everything Shnak said was true. Similar to Kimbo, Lesnar was brought in because of the attention he could garner, few people saw him having a future in MMA, let alone winning the HW title. The first Mir fight changed all of that and before long, he had defeated highly touted and ranked veterans in the sport.

Lesnar was the real deal and if he had been brought along in the sport instead of being thrown to the sharks, I truly believe he would of have even more success.

So highly touted veterans and thrown in with the sharks? I don’t get it, so when he beat Frank Mir, Randy Couture, and Shane Carwin he beat highly touted veterans. When Cain Velasquez whooped his ass he shouldn’t have been thrown in the with the sharks? Which is it? If he’s good enough to beat three as you said highly touted vets who were champions at one time, shouldn’t he have been good enough to beat Cain?

Maybe you should consider changing your name to “CollegeDropOut” because that is some pretty crappy logic. First of all, it is possible that one fighter is better than another, even if that fighter is highly touted veteran (crazy concept, I know). In other words, just because he was able to beat Mir, Couture, and Carwin, that does not guarantee he’ll beat everyone else, especially someone like Cain.

My point was, and I’ll try to make this as simple as possible for you, had Lesnar had the opportunity to grow in the sport, I believe (along with many others) that he would have been far more successful. He would’ve had the chance to work on certain deficient skill sets and he would likely feel much more comfortable in the cage. The fact that he was able to beat those veterans with such little experience speaks for itself.

As an aside, I really feel like I’m getting trolled here. Shame on me for biting.

Lesnar wasn't considered the best until he beat Carwin, btw

Lesnar ended up being much more than a draw. If he’d lost to Herring, he’d have been cut like Kimbo.

His point seems to be about people that were more legitimate fighters not getting nearly as much attention. I’m sure plenty of others have made the same point.

A lot of people in the comment section of this article are bashing Rockhold and trying to discredit his resume (which is what I was addressing more than saying Rockhold is a humble guy.) I would guess that most would not have wins of the same quality and likely don’t even fight. Yet Rockhold (a champion) can’t say the same thing? It’s a bit hypocritical.

They’re bashing Rockhold because most of these guys are fanboys who bought into the hype. They agree with Luke but don’t want to admit it. So bashing is the more rational tactic in the mind of an in denial Brock zombie

So bashing is the more rational tactic in the mind of an in denial Brock zombie

Oh please, do go on.

Everyone Brock fought in the UFC was ranked #10 or higher

and after Heath Herring, was anyone ranked below #5? So, yeah, they “gave” him the right fights. Sure, Rockhold.

I may be wrong.....

………..but I don’t recall Heath being top 15 when he lost to Brock and Mir being top 10 when he beat Brock. Heath was like 2-2 in the UFC at the time and If my memory serves me right Mir also 2-2 after nearly a 2 year lay off due to his accident. I’m sure activity, or lack there of is a factor in rankings. Now considering their wins were over less than stellar opponents, I wouldn’t consider Herring and Mir top 10 at the time they fought Brock. I get your point and to some extent I agree, but regardless of the NAMES he fought and where they are NOW, Brock, in no particular order, fought and LOST to 1 non top 10 fighter, beat 1 non top 15 fighter and beat 1 fighter possibly not ranked at all. He essentially fought 3 non top 10 fighter to get a UFC title shot. IMHO, that sounds like a gift. If not a gift, then a careful match making to create a star. I’m not a fan of Luke, but I don’t have to be to agree w/ him.

Rockhold speaks the TRUTH! After all, Rockhold has also fought the absolute murderer's row of fighters in his own division like Jesse "JT Money" Taylor!

wait, wut?

His opponent tonight has won an incredible 2 out of his last 8 fights.
overeem is the greatest hw mma kickboxer that

Has elite strength athlete level strength, black belt level hits, good wrestling, and well put together game.
That look on Brocks face was fear. After the first knee the look on his face was….. knowing the end is near.

yea...

because only false fighters and frauds have wins over Couture, Mir, Carwin and Herring in their first 6 fights. Good to know.

Not just that, but three of those four fights (counting Mir vs Lesnar II) were all finishes within the second round. I’m not much of a fan of Lesnar in the UFC, but he does deserve a lot more credit. I guess that Rockhold is just trying to get some MMA fans talking, and if that’s the case, then it’s kind of working.

I’m not sure Frank Mir or Shane Carwin are the right fights for anyone.

Time will tell how good/bad a fighter Rockhold will become, but he’s dead right about Lesnar. Brock was a guy who loved to dish out beatings but absolutely hated to fight. His win over Heath Herring looks good until you see Herring was 2-2 in his previous 4, not exactly the same guy who upset Tom Erikson in Pride. He became the 4th guy to either KO/TKO Randy Couture. Credit for the Frank Mir win, but his reaction to being hit against Velasquez was humiliating, and to be honest i reckon he was lucky to get all of his purse for the Overeem ‘fight’.
Huge name, great draw for Zuffa, physical freak, but never an authentic fighter.

Nick Diaz hates to fight. Is he not a real fighter? Frankie Edgar did the same 360 turn after being rocked by Maynard. Is he not a real fighter? Rockhold’s argument is terrible. Why does he mention Lesnar’s fear during the walk-in? Do real fighters not get scared according to him? I wish Jardine kicks six shades of shit out of him.

Wait hang on....

…..You’re not seriously comparing Brock to Diaz and Edgar are you? I mean for real, you’re kidding right?

They were comparisons I used to defend Lesnar’s legitimacy as a fighter. I am, in no way, comparing their skills. Looking at what I wrote, I thought that was obvious.

Lesnar is a tough mofo

But he doesn’t like to fight. He isn’t a fighter per se, he’s a walk-home-on-your-broken-leg kind of tough guy. Offer a guy like that 3-5 million to step in to a cage with real actual professional fighters he’s going to say “hey, I’ll see what I can do”. That’s the vibe I always got from Lesnar – he knew he had his size and his wrestling and if he could get on top of someone (like with Mir) he could farmboy-smash them in to next week. But, if it turned in to an actual real fight with a real pro with similar physical attributes as himself he knew his chances of winning were pretty slim – but for 400K to show and a few million in PPV money that’s not something a guy like Brock worries too much about. I really don’t think he came in to the AO fight with winning in mind – “just give it a try and see what happens, at least I get paid and who knows, I could even win” – nor do I believe he would have against Dos Santos. Why would he turn down that kind of money? Wrestling is fake and all, but they get real injuries all the time. He was offered several million to be put through hell for a few minutes, I get why he didn’t turn it down even if he really deep down didn’t want to be fighting in a cage

Here is the video of him saying the same thing

http://youtu.be/XNOR44idCW4?t=3m31s

if interested

Lesnar was given a title shot after one fight in the UFC. By definition he was given a gift fight because he got a title shot after one fight in the UFC. Most guys don’t get a title shot after five fights much less one. So yes Luke is right in that Brock was given an easy road but since he’s Brock Lesnar its not exactly breaking news to any rational mma fan with half a brain. Lesnar put butts in seats in spite of his overall garbage skill and hatred of real punches to the face. His career served its purpose albeit short term. He was brought in to make money for Dana White and sell tickets to loyal fan boys who followed him over from the fake fighting world of WWE. Brock was successful at being what he is, he was unsuccessful in trying to be what he is not: A mixed martial artist.

Luke is right and wrong about his overall view on Lesnar. Brock beat Randy Couture who was 60 years old when they fought. Heath Herring doesn’t even fight anymore, and Shane Carwin probably never fights again. As for Mir I give Brock credit for that because Mir is still a worthy stepping stone fight for any rising heavyweight but nothing more. People talk about Shane Carwin but Carwin like I said will never fight again and if he does he’ll be a stepping stone like Mir, if that.

Besides Machida did a worse number on Couture than Brock.

Frank Mir...

A stepping stone? I think NOT.

At this point yes he is. He’ll never be UFC heavyweight champ because the guys coming in after him are better. People say he could beat Overeem because Mir has great BJJ. But a majority of Overeem’s wins come on the ground. So if Mir can be matched on the ground and Overeem tops him standing up where does Frank go in that fight? To sleep

Stepping Stone?

Now? Yes.
Then? No.

I take that back, not even now, he's still a contender I, suppose.
BJ Penn was talking to himself, looking kinda crazy in his way in to fight Hughes for the 3rd time

And that’s what Brock’s pre-fight attitude most reminded me of, honestly.

Hey Rockhead

Like a title defense against a fading Keith Jardine isn’t ‘the right match-up at the right time?" C’mon son! Let us all just leave the anger-inducing Lesnar commentary in the past. He showed up for a check and got liver spotted. Fuck ‘im! I’m weary of seeing his name getting dropped, from both the MMA world and the PW world. I hope to never see him in a cage or ring again. That said, I do like Rockhold to win.

By the way, Brock, you owe me fifty bucks you jugheaded snatch!

More people care about Brock not fighting than any fight Luke Rockhold has ever had

I’d be talking all angry and bitter too if I was him.

He just got the right matchups and the right fights

Says the guy who got a title shot because Strikeforce had nobody else to feed to Jacare.

Fuck this guy. War Jardine.

Same here. I’ve never hoped for a Jardine victory more than this weekend. Then again, I also wanted Jardine to come in and beat Mousasi just to fuck up Strikeforce’s plans…

He was just giving his opinion.

It’s not like he was telling anyone what to think. He was just saying what he thought.

And I’m sure a lot of MMA fighters feel the same way especially with the way Brock reacted anytime he was punched, kicked or kneed. Brock was the highest paid MMA fighter before he even had his first fight, not because he was any good, but because to the casual fan, he looked like he was. A giant muscled blond hair and blue eyed wrestler with “badass” tattoos and an even worse attitude is what the fans UFC caters to expect a cage fighter to look like, so Brock and the UFC pushed him to the front over everyone else based on smoke and mirrors and an ignorant fan base who wants to chant USA.

I’m sure that rubbed a lot of guys who have put their heart and souls into this sport while making nothing, the wrong way.

It doesn’t surprise me that when the great white hype loses his clothing and is proven nothing more than hype, his peers want to point it out. Every time Brock talked in the third person about how big and bad he was they probably just rolled their eyes and looked at their wrist watch knowing it was only a matter of time.

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