Luke Rockhold: Mass Appeal

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The UFC’s fourth annual “International Fight Week” has drawn thousands of fans, armed to the teeth with Sharpies and memorabilia, to Sands Expo Center in Las Vegas. They wait patiently in a number of lines, hoping to get an autograph and a photo with their favorite fighters. One line, in particular, is inexplicably stuffed with giggling teenagers and a few moms who look as if they’ve never once been intrigued by the beautiful destruction of mixed martial arts. A soccer mom leans over to another 30-something woman and whispers, “Who is that?”

The 30-something turns without taking her eyes off the subject, smiles and says without hesitation, “Oh, that’s Luke Rockhold.”

They both stare silently. The soccer mom is nodding her head in a dream state as the 6-foot-3 middleweight, who looks like he belongs on a “Baywatch” beach playing volleyball instead of locked in a cage fighting off savages, signs an endless stream of autographs. Rockhold has gone way over his time limit and struggles to make the 200-foot walk to the next station as fans swarm and snap selfies on the run. His publicist tugs at his arm and does her best to politely shoo away the mob. He finally makes it to the next station, smiles and spends another hour or so signing autographs.

By the time he retires on a couch and exhales, Rockhold looks spent. In the background are highlights from the heated UFC 189 weigh-in exchange between Chad Mendes and Conor McGregor on ESPN. Rockhold sits up briefly to capture the spectacle of thousands of rabid fans roaring in MGM Grand Garden Arena. The next day will go down as arguably the most action-packed UFC pay-per-view event in the history of the sport. But on this evening, it’s all about the McGregor hype.

On the table in front of him sits a copy of Fighters Only magazine, which he covers in his Adidas fight gear. He picks it up, gives it a once over and places it back down. I tell Rockhold that he could probably land the cover of GQ if he were to win the UFC middleweight title, then ask if he’s ever put much thought into his marketability.

The 30-year-old looks at the screen, then back down at the magazine, takes a deep breath and lets it be known that the idea of stardom certainly has crossed his mind.

“I’ve definitely thought about it,” Rockhold says. “I know I can transcend the sport a little bit if need be, and I’m not scared to dabble outside of the sport to do a few things.”

Rockhold is no fool. He’s keenly aware of the mainstream success that lies in front of him. An appearance on Bravo’s “The Millionaire Matchmaker” was a little taste of what life could be like outside of the Octagon. It wasn’t the most flattering experience for Rockhold, as he was portrayed to be more scumbag bachelor than gentleman looking for love. Nevertheless, Rockhold took the experience in stride and now laughs about his time on the show.

After briefly getting caught up in reflection, Rockhold shakes free from Hollywood and comes back to his senses.

“I’m a fighter first, and that’s my focus,” he says, a grin stretching across his face. All of that glamour and glitz sounds good to Rockhold, but there’s nothing more he would want than the UFC middleweight title.

The former Strikeforce champion knows what it’s like to have a belt of gold wrapped around his waist and he enjoyed how it felt. He was well on his way to challenging for the UFC’s middleweight crown until his plans were violently derailed by a Vitor Belfort spinning heel kick in his 2013 debut. It’s a fight that still stings given the circumstances surrounding Belfort’s scintillating run of consecutive knockouts while fighting in Brazil amidst rising controversy over testosterone replacement therapy.

Rockhold has held nothing back about his feelings toward Belfort in the years that have passed and admits he was satisfied when Belfort’s comeuppance came in the form of a savage first round stoppage at the hands of current UFC middleweight champ Chris Weidman. But, while there was some gratification when he saw Belfort in a heap on the canvas at UFC 167, Rockhold says that losing to Belfort was more positive than negative.

“That spinning heel kick out of nowhere was the best thing that ever happened to me in my career,” he says. “I should have beaten him, even if he was on that s--t, but it was the perfect storm for him and it made me refocus and analyze how I was fighting. I hate losing, and losing like that really fired me up and made me think about what I’m doing and how I’m doing it.”

Since the loss that sent his rising star crashing back down to earth, Rockhold has been decidedly more aggressive in his approach. He rolled through Costas Philippou, Tim Boetsch, Michael Bisping and Lyoto Machida with relative ease. All four were unable to make it to the third round, and the victory over Machida was Rockhold’s most impressive to date.

The Rubix cube known as Machida has always been a difficult puzzle for fighters to solve. After giving Weidman a run for his money and a swift throttling of C.B. Dollaway, the matchup between Machida and Rockhold held a ton of intrigue. However, all bets were off once the fight started on April 18, and the American Kickboxing Academy fighter thoroughly dominated Machida en route to an impressive second-round rear-naked choke. The victory secured Rockhold’s spot as No. 1 contender and lined him up for a future showdown against Weidman.

“It was a perfect scenario for me,” he reflects of the fight that earned him a $50,000 “Performance of the Night” bonus. “I could have beaten him any way I wanted, but I knew I had a huge advantage over him on the ground. On the feet, it would have been annoying, but I would have eventually got to him. But I always look to finish fights as effectively and quick as possible.”

The victory sets him up with an opportunity to bring a second piece of gold back to the AKA. It’s been a year of highs and lows for for the San Jose gym, as 2015 started with Daniel Cormier’s devastating loss to Jon Jones followed by DC claiming the light heavyweight title vacated by Jones with an impressive submission victory over Anthony Johnson four months later. But the celebration would be short lived, as AKA’s other champion, Cain Velasquez would be thoroughly dominated by Fabricio Werdum a few weeks later to see the Brazilian rip away his heavyweight title.

Despite the rollercoaster ride for the team, Rockhold says everyone is in high spirits and ready to bring another title back to the gym.

“We all have that mentality of, when we lose, we’re going to pick ourselves back up and get better,” Rockhold says while using himself and Velasquez as examples. “You saw what kind of monster Cain was after he lost to Junior dos Santos, right? He’ll be back.”

With a boisterous Conor McGregor interview playing on the television, I ask Rockhold what he thinks about “The Notorious” one’s gift of gab and if he deems it necessary to be more vocal in order to secure a title fight. Rockhold quickly waves off the idea and deadpans, “I don’t need to talk my way into fights. I fight my way into fights.”

After shrugging off the notion that calling out opponents would have accelerated his ascent up the ladder, Rockhold says that he enjoys what McGregor has done and isn’t against verbally jousting with any foe.

“I’m not opposed to talking trash,” he continues. “I’m a competitive person who doesn’t want to lose in a fight or a verbal war. I want to build it up for the fans and put on a show. If a situation calls, I might be talking about Weidman a little bit to get into his head.”

Since the interview, Rockhold and Weidman engaged in a spat on Twitter as the two exchanged insults. The product of Santa Cruz, Calif., seems to enjoy the art of throwing verbal jabs, just as long as he can back it up in the Octagon. And against Weidman, Rockhold won’t shy away from suggesting that he’ll hold all the advantages when they do eventually meet in the cage.

“The difference is between our Machida fights,” Rockhold says. Weidman took home a closely contested unanimous decision against Machida, while Rockhold finished the job. “I think he’s a very smart and well-rounded fighter, but I think I’m better everywhere. I have too much for him. I have too much finesse and too much jiu-jitsu.”

Knowing Weidman’s strong wrestling base, Rockhold gives him the edge, but only enough to get him into trouble.

“He’s a better offensive wrestler than me, but offensive wrestling is going to get him nowhere,” says Rockhold, a 2007 IBJJF World Jiu-Jitsu Championship gold medalist. “He’s going to get into more trouble on the ground. He’ll start to panic and I’m going to be teeing off on him like Tiger Woods. I don’t just want to win, I want to put a stamp on him and beat all of these other guys like nobody has ever beaten them before.”

Outside of the sitting area, a young man is trying his best to get Rockhold’s attention. Rockhold finally looks up and motions him to come over. The teenager has a sheet full of Topps cards with Rockhold on them. As the BJJ black belt begins signing the cards, he becomes intrigued with the picture of him throwing a hook kick. He pulls it out, shows it to me, laughs and asks the man if he can keep it. The kid obliges and Rockhold puts it next to the magazine with his image splashed across the cover.

“It never stops,” Rockhold says with a smile as he finishes putting his signature on the cards. His phone buzzes and he answers to the voice of Michelle Velasquez discussing Team AKA’s dinner plans for the evening. When he hangs up, Rockhold begins thumbing through his text messages and again utters, “It never stops.”

I ask him how he’s going to deal with markedly increased fame and demands if he becomes champion, and Rockhold shrugs it off as something he can handle. An inquiry about his craziest fan experience follows and he ponders for a minute before going back through his phone to pull some direct messages from his Twitter account. He smiles and reveals the crass two word message that came from hundreds of woman after his appearance on “The Millionaire Matchmaker.” (It’s a response to a controversial question that put him in the doghouse with host Patti Stanger.)

“I’ll always be the same old Luke,” he says as his laughter fills up the room.

“I blew up ‘The Millionaire Matchmaker!’” Rockhold exclaims, still chuckling at the messages his fans of the opposite sex left him. He says that if he’s champion he has no problem with the travel demands and appearances on talk shows, but one opportunity sits firmly at the front of his mind.

“‘The Bachelor’ is next. If that came up, I would destroy that. You can’t give me that much power. Oh my God!”