Luke Rockhold is preparing for a main event battle as he faces Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza one more time at UFC Fight Night 101, and he's going in with some positivity.
Rockhold recently finished negotiating a new contract with the UFC and according to an interview with Submission Radio, the negotiations went well.
“They’re gonna play hardball with some people,” Rockhold said. “Some people don’t have a leg to stand on, I guess surprisingly enough. I know Weidman has his own issues too. A lot of people thought they’ll follow suit, I guess, after seeing what did – it didn’t work out for some of them. I think it depends on knowing what your worth is, knowing what you’re capable of and how far you can push. There’s another league, they have good money, that is an option for some people. For me, it’s gotta make sense. Dollars make sense. And so if the dollars aren’t up to par, then what’s the point? For me, I’ve put my time in this sport. I think I’ve earned my reputation and I have a leg to stand on when I make a demand like that.”
Once the negotiations were all completed, Rockhold was given a deal that has left the former middleweight champion in a great position.
“My contract, I’d done up early on and I was informed that I’d be taken care of if I held up my part of the bargain. I think signing that contract before Machida, beating a champion in Machida decisively, putting him away and putting away Chris Weidman — you know, making a hiccup in Bisping shouldn’t set me back to where I was. And so I had told them how I felt about it and so we moved in a better direction, but I think there’s still a lot of improvement to make,” said Rockhold.
Despite the fact that Rockhold now has a new deal in place, that will not prevent him from negotiating further if he finds more success in the promotion.
“That all depends on who I fight and what happens. So I mean, if I beat Jacare, if that title fight isn’t waiting for me at my doorstep, well I’m sure we’ll talk,” Rockhold said.
UFC Fight Night 101 takes place place on Saturday, November 26th from the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia with Luke Rockhold and Ronaldo Souza headlining.
Credit to Bloody Elbow for the transcript.
