Former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold appeared on The MMA Hour ahead of his return to the Octagon this weekend, and he shared plenty of opinions virtually guaranteed to get the UFC brass offside. “After losing the title, you get disrespected. This is a mafia, the UFC.
There’s no rhyme or reason in this game, and when you lose your leverage, these people try to step on you, and then you just fight back, and it’s a constant fight. It’s annoying. It’s f****** sick, it’s disgusting. It needs change, and I’m not scared to say it.
Luke Rockhold Blasts UFC’s “Mafia” Tactics
Everything I’m saying is right, everything I’m saying is true. I’m not going to bite my lip and not tell it like it is because [I should] wait until I get power and position. F*** off. This is exactly how it is, and it turned me sour in the game.”
Rockhold compared the experience of working with the UFC unfavorably to his time with Strikeforce. He traced what he perceived as ill treatment to the very beginning of his UFC career.
“I think it happened the moment I came in the UFC. I came in and I was disrespected right off the bat. I had to go f****** fight Vitor Belfort while they knew they were protecting him, so he could do all the steroids in the world and be their Brazilian f****** super hero and push the needle down there. Yeah, that was disrespect right off the bat, the moment I walked into the UFC.
I started to gain that respect back. When you earn leverage and you win and you start to gain the momentum, it comes. Life is a game of leverage, and it’s not just the UFC, it’s everywhere. In business, in life, it’s understanding your leverage, understanding your worth. And if you don’t, people are always going to f****** belittle you and play hardball. The rich get richer, and it’s always a battle of suppressing one and building another. So it’s not just the UFC, it’s not just Dana, it’s really everywhere. There’s not a lot of fairness, not a lot of real, true people in this world.
In Strikeforce it was different. There was a hierarchy, and there was a way to get up, but there was a lot more fairness and a lot more fun back then.” Rockhold had particular ire for the lack of healthcare options the UFC made to fighters.
“The health protection, everything. We’re putting our lives on the lines, and these guys are out there trying to act like they’re doing the best for us. The business is changing. Growth. And Dana White’s out there just trying to follow Conor McGregor, putting his things and giving more degenerate lifestyle kids f****** – what did he gift that kid, someone told me he gifted that Full Send kid $250,000 for no reason? And then he’s out there saying we get what we deserve.
Come on, Dana. Shut up. What are you doing? Nothing’s right.”
