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Former middleweight champion Luke Rockhold had some choice words for UFC president Dana White.
Rockhold, who won the title at UFC 194 in 2015, recounted his interaction with White after losing the belt to Michael Bisping at UFC 199.
GettyLuke Rockhold poses during the UFC Fight Night: Rockhold v Bisping Press Event at Museum of Contemporary Art on September 11, 2014 in Sydney, Australia.
Speaking recently on the Rippin’ It podcast, Rockhold said the UFC president tried to “beat him down mentally”.
“Fighting is like a mafia,” Rockhold said via Bro Bible. They have these very mafioso-type tactics in negotiations, they try to f*** with you. I’m not having any of it.”
“If you don’t know your worth someone will tell you your worth and it’ll be less than your worth, so know your worth. Once I lost the world title, Dana White came up to me and tried to beat me down mentally and I was like ‘f*** you,’ straight up. I was like, I’m going to go do my own thing, if you’re going to try and offer me this and that bulls***, you know who I am and what I did, that’s the only reason I went out and got a modeling contract so I could leverage myself.”
“Then you’ve got Dana and them like ‘Hey Luke, do you want this amount of money, do you want that’ and I was like ‘yeah, that’s right motherf*****.’”
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Rockhold Says White Is ‘Bit of a Tyrant,’ Suggests Governing Body
During the podcast, Rockhold said that MMA would be better off with some sort of governing body to shift the balance of power away from White.
We don’t have the governing body. We’ve got an egotistical guy that’s a bit of a tyrant. No one is going to try and fight you, you’ve got to put your a** on the line, stand your ground, take risk, otherwise you get treated like a b****. It’s unfortunate, a guy like that, he thinks he can fight, he thinks he’s a fighter. I don’t understand why he’s trying to belittle all the fighters when you’ve never fought a day in your life. You’re a promoter. We need a governing body to give people what they deserve, he doesn’t play the game right.
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Rockhold Is 1-3 in Last 4, Planning UFC Return for Summer
The former champ has fallen on hard times professionally, dropping his last two fights in a row by KO. Rockhold’s 1-3 in his last four fights, which includes his title loss to Bisping.
Earlier this month, Rockhold told Submission Radio that he hopes to return to action in the summer. He said that he will likely fight at middleweight, but did not rule out 205 pounds, the weight class he competed in for his last fight.
Rockhold has a professional MMA record of 16-5.
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