UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Daniel Cormier is days away from defending the gold against Volkan Oezdemir in the co-main event of UFC 220.
Former UFC Middleweight Champion Luke Rockhold used to train at American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) alongside Cormier, but now trains in Florida with Henri Hooft. Rockhold also trains alongside Oezdemir, but DC isn’t very concerned with his former teammate helping out a future opponent.
“Luke training with my opponent?” Cormier said on a Facebook Q&A. “Meh. It doesn’t matter, Luke can’t really help him. Luke can’t beat me! What’s Luke going to teach him? You know he’s not telling him any secrets. Luke’s an innocent bystander in this thing. I know that it seems odd that he’s training at a new gym, but he needed to. I’m always doing TV, Cain’s been injured, so we’re away. His training situation has changed and it was very brave of him to make the move to find a better spot for himself.”
Although Rockhold doesn’t train any longer at AKA, it was an amicable split between fighter and training camp.
While Rockhold is training alongside Oezdemir, it is unknown just how much work they have done together ahead of UFC 220.
UFC 220 takes place on Saturday, January 20 from the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts with Stipe Miocic and Francis Ngannou headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
