UFC commentator and former two-division champion Daniel Cormier detailed his emotional response to former middleweight champ Luke Rockhold’s retirement on his YouTube channel. At one point, Rockhold, Cormier, Khabib Nurmagomedov, and Cain Velasquez were the “four kings” of American Kickboxing Academy.
With Rockhold’s retirement, no longer. “My boy Luke Rockhold fights the final fight of his career and you know what? I can’t say I’m not disappointed.
DC Praises Retired Rockhold as Last of AKA “Four Kings”
Because skill wise he looked like he still has a ton left but his cardio, his body posture, the way that he looked in there tells me that it’s about time for my boy to walk away. So I ran over and I gave him a big hug. Hats off to my boy Luke.
Guys, I hope that you guys enjoy this while we were there. I always talk about you’ve got to enjoy fighters while you have them. Because you never know when they’re going to be gone.
I got this picture sent to me and now we’re all gone. You look at this photo and it’s Khabib Nurmagomedov, myself, Luke Rockhold and Cain Velasquez and if you look at the coach off to the right, to the left of Cain, he’s dead. Cain’s in jail. We’ve had some really, really great times at the American Kickboxing Academy and the final of the guys we called the “four kings” takes a bow in front of the fans tonight in what I believe was a fairytale ending for Luke Rockhold.”
Cormier also took a moment to praise the performance of Rockhold’s UFC 278 opponent, Paulo Costa, who may also be leaving the UFC soon. “Let’s give our credit to Paulo Costa because he dealt with an absolute wildman in there.
Luke was not the technical striker that you come to know. Luke was not that guy that was going to pick Paulo Costa apart. Luke was a madman and Paulo Costa not only stood in there but he beat him 30-27. Luke didn’t take a round off Paulo Costa.
So for all the praise that we are going to heap on Luke Rockhold, Paulo Costa won the fight and he won the fight going away. He grappled very effectively. I could not believe how easily he was able to pass Luke’s guard and then mount Luke on multiple occasions. But it was also him being able to deal with the madness that was ensuing around him in regards to the fight itself.”
What did you think of Luke Rockhold’s final performance? Let us know in the comments.
