Former UFC Middleweight Champion Luke Rockhold hasn’t been seen in the Octagon since losing the title to Michael Bisping at UFC 199.
When he finally does return to the Octagon, MMA fans may be seeing the fighter compete in a completely different weight class.
“I’m here to fight, one way or the other,” he said on The MMA Hour. “But the [middleweight] division itself is annoying, and I’m not holding to that either. I’m hoping to move up a division. I’ve voiced that so, if this division’s going to go the way it’s going, might as well move up and do a different division. [DC’s not going to fight forever, so I don’t know. There’s plenty of other guys that can dance around and fight. I wouldn’t mind taking fights at heavyweight just for fun. I mean, if it’s just about having fun and getting paid, I’d rather go fight somewhere else. I would rather fight in a different division. Because I’m not going to fight the best guys at middleweight to get to nowhere. I’d rather fight fights that are fun, for me, and get me excited. Picking off people like Werdum.”
Rockhold has never fought at heavyweight before in his career, as the majority of his fights have come at middleweight.
The former middleweight champion feels that if he were given the opportunity to compete at heavyweight, it would work out quite well for him.
“I’m not going to try and gain a bunch of weight,” he said. “What do I need? I fight the best heavyweights all the time. I know what I’m capable of in that division. I’ve got a lot of guys that come through. I train a lot of different areas, so I’d do quite well at heavyweight.”
This isn’t the first time that Rockhold teased a move to heavyweight, as he has previously challenged former UFC Heavyweight Champion Fabricio Werdum to a fight and the Brazilian turned it down.
