Former UFC Middleweight Champion Luke Rockhold is willing to fill in for Kelvin Gastelum and fight another former UFC Middleweight Champion in Anderson Silva at UFC 212.
While Rockhold is willing to step in, the UFC President says that it will be a process to get Silva to agree to the fight.
“Obviously Anderson was willing to take on Kelvin Gastelum, who is a very tough and dangerous guy,” White told MMA Junkie. “I got to talk to Anderson. You all know, everybody in this room knows what it’s like dealing with Anderson. Not that it’s a bad thing; it’s just a process. It’s a process that I’m going to have to go through now.”
Rockhold hasn’t competed since he lost the middleweight title to Michael Bisping at UFC 199, while Silva last competed at UFC 208.
The UFC President feels that Silva is a stud fighter and that he has helped the UFC many times by stepping in on short notice as well.
“One of the things that I’ve always respected about Anderson – he didn’t want to fight Chael Sonnen again,” White said. “He said, ‘The guy is disrespectful, he’s a punk, and he doesn’t deserve to fight me.’ He fought him. There’s always been times where – Anderson steps up, and Anderson fights. Anderson and fought (Daniel) Cormier at (UFC) 200. He’s a stud, man. He’s the (greatest of all time), and I’m looking forward to walking through this process for the Luke Rockhold fight. We’ll see what happens.”
Yoel Romero has also stated that he is willing to fight Silva on short notice as well, but he would like the fight to be for an interim middleweight title.
