It’s been three years since Luke Rockhold last fought in MMA, and there’s a chance he’ll never compete under those rules again.
With a boxing match booked against fellow UFC veteran Darren Till on Aug. 30 at Misfits Boxing 22 in England, the former UFC middleweight champion has found other opportunities that don’t require him to do MMA anymore. Since leaving the UFC, Rockhold has competed in bare-knuckle fighting — an experience he did not enjoy — and a Karate Combat fight against Joe Schilling before booking his boxing debut with Till.
While he’ll never say never, Rockhold doesn’t see a need to go back to MMA unless there’s an offer on the table that’s too good to refuse.
“I don’t have to do anything,” Rockhold told MMA Fighting. “I do well. I’ve got a lot of good investments, I’ve got some money. I’m not rich by any means so it’s get rich or die trying. That’s what life is. That’s what the game is. But I love fighting. We all know what’s on the table. Beat a guy like Darren, you put yourself in the running for the big fights. There’s big, big, fights right here.
“To pass up those big fights [after] winning this, why the f*ck would I go back to MMA? There would have to be a big opportunity and a big reason. There would have to be title implications and there would have to be big money.”
Prior to his boxing match against Till coming together in August, Rockhold was one of numerous UFC veterans signed to compete in the Global Fight League, a promotion built around a team concept with dozens of high profile signings after initially launching. GFL planned on a two-night, two event debut in May, but both cards were cancelled and the organization has all but disappeared now without ever holding a single event.
None of that really came as a shock to Rockhold, who signed with GFL and booked a fight against old rival Chris Weidman before the promotion effectively went belly up. Rockhold says he went into that deal with his eyes wide open, but appreciated that GFL was still paying him a stipend even if he never actually fought there.
“I was getting paid,” Rockhold said. “I was taking nice paychecks monthly. I kind of knew, we as my management team talked and this thing wasn’t really going to come to fruition.
“You’re talking seven-figure paychecks for people that have never been UFC champions. Multiples. That’s not a sustainable business. You can’t keep that up. I used it as motivation to train and get paid and to stay in shape for these opportunities. I kind of expected what was to happen.”
According to Rockhold, all of his GFL paychecks cleared so he has no complaints in that department even if he always had doubts the organization would get off the ground.
That’s why he never appeared in any promotional material much less the “GFL draft” that placed all the fighters on various teams based around the globe.
“There wasn’t one conversation I had with my managers that wasn’t skeptical,” Rockhold said. “Just enjoy the money, do this, do that. I didn’t even really want to do interviews because I just knew it was bullshit.
“They had that big launch thing with the draft, they tried to get me on there. I was like this is not it. People were hopeful. People saw these big, big paychecks. They just wanted to believe it was real but people need to have more reality.”
While GFL came and went without holding a single event so far, Rockhold knows fighters need more opportunities just like how he spent a huge part of his career competing in Strikeforce.
That said, the 40-year-old veteran has no illusions when it comes to the difficulty involved with getting into the fight business and actually sustaining long-term success.
“It’s a tough business for sure,” Rockhold said. “The more opportunities is always better for sure. GFL, you just need someone more who’s got their shit together. You can’t be too ambitious. You can’t come out of the gates throwing money around like that when the market’s not doing well.”