Luke Rockhold Talks Title Win Over Jacare Souza

Luke Rockhold - photo courtesy of allelbows.com

Rockhold details championship win over Souza

On a night that proved to be a memorable one for the team at American Kickboxing Academy, middleweight Luke Rockhold carved out a career highlight by defeating one of the world’s best middleweights in Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza.

The two fighters battled for the complete 25 minutes. It was the first time Rockhold had been out of the first round, and it also provided a look at one of the most promising young fighters in the sport.

“It’s definitely overwhelming. To be honest, I’m not sure if it has quite hit me yet. I know it is going to be a long road and a lot of things are going to change, but I’m just going to have to try to adapt and adjust to the situations as they come. I’m not looking forward to 5 round training, that’s for sure. It’s a brutal process. Hopefully in the future we can get it done a little faster.

“Fighting for five rounds is a little bit like I expected it would be. I kind of got a little tired in there, and that’s not something I like to do. I pushed through the entire time. He hit me with some solid body snap kicks that might have slowed me down a little bit, but I kept pushing. My cardio was off the charts coming into this fight. If you ask my coaches they will tell you they were astonished at the shape I got into for this fight with Jacare.”

“I was in top form cardio-wise, and with never having been out of the first round, I was busting my ass in camp. I was constantly going against top guys, fresh guys, for five rounds hard and when we checked my resting heart rate I was constantly in the mid 30’s. I was definitely in shape for this.”

Rockhold struggled in the opening frame against Souza. He took big punches and body kicks from the champion and appeared as if he was getting overwhelmed.

“I was a little tense in the first round. I was a bit worried about his takedowns because I knew that’s what he wanted to do, and I didn’t want to get caught on my back. He worked for the takedowns as I knew he was going to do, so I just kept scrambling and had confidence in my jiu-jitsu and wrestling. I got up every time he put me there, so my confidence only became that much stronger. In training camp I learned that my best rounds are my later rounds because I settle in and relax. “

As the fight carried into the later rounds Rockhold settled in and turned the tide. He used forward pressure and an arsenal of kicks to keep Souza backing up. He was getting the better of the stand-up exchanges and the few times Souza was able to take him down; he wasn’t able to keep him there. Against a world class jiu-jitsu practitioner like Souza, this came as a badge of honor.

“No doubt it is a confidence builder for me. I train with some of the best guys in the world and my jiu-jitsu is not weak. I feel it’s up there, and even though I haven’t competed in a long time I’ve won some pretty good tournaments. I won some tournaments in 2007 and that is when I realized that I couldn’t come into this sport just being good at jiu-jitsu. I had to be well rounded in everything.”

“Earlier in my life I wanted to accomplish so many things that I ended up spreading myself thin by doing too many sports. When I was young I was good at all of the sports I played, but I was never really the best of the best. But I definitely wanted to be the best at everything. Eventually it clicked in my mind that MMA was where this could happen.”

“After my second fight – which was a loss – I realized I was too one dimensional. When the fight was standing up, I was a striker and when it was wrestling, I was a wrestler. I wasn’t prepared for the big slams or the overall picture of setting things up or reacting. I had the guy caught in a triangle and I was getting hit by his free hand so things like that I just wasn’t prepared for. Anything can happen in this sport and you just have to train for it all. You have to mix everything together and work on integrating them all.”

After the judge’s scorecards were read, Rockhold’s championship dreams became a reality. While the weight of the moment may not have yet set it, he knows there is a vacation and possible a military hero waiting for him in the future.

“Tim Kennedy is a tough guy and I’m more than happy to oblige him if that’s the process. Wherever they want to put me is fine by me and whatever happens is what is going to happen. I definitely am looking forward to a little time off. I had a five month camp training for this fight which was crazy. I’m going to take a little surfing trip and maybe grab a few tee times. I would like to play a little golf and hit something that isn’t going to hit me back for a change.