Luke Rockhold slams ‘freak show’ UFC, demands path to title or release from contract

The proposed Michael Bisping vs. Georges St-Pierre middleweight title fight has really made a mess of things, especially for all of the top 185-pound contenders under the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) roster.

And no one has been more outspoken with the recent matchmaking and state of the division than former champion Luke Rockhold. During a recent interview in The MMA Hour, Luke once again expressed his disappointment with the 185-pound landscape, fighters holding out for title fights, and the promotion itself.

“It’s lacking motivation. There’s nothing I want more than to get into a fight, but when you fight, there has got to be a goal. I fight to be the best, win titles, and get that championship belt,” said Luke. “That’s what it’s all about. There’s no path to that, there is no light at the end of the tunnel, so what’s the fucking point?”

While “Rush” and “The Count” now have a tentative date to fight in November, Rockhold says it will be nearly two years before Bisping actually fights a top division contender. And if he has to a different weight class to get a meaningful bout or a championship showdown, then so be it.

“If they fight in October, Bisping wouldn’t have fought a contender in a year and a half holding the belt. Potentially two years if he ever does fight a contender. It’s becoming pretty ridiculous. There is just no point, especially in this division and I’m open to moving division if I have to.”

Hello, heavyweight?

That said, Rockhold revealed he was recently offered a fight agaisnt Gegard Mousasi, but says it doesn’t make since since Gegard still hasn’t re-signed with the promotion.

“I’ve been offered a fight and I don’t understand it, exactly. They offered me Mousasi and they haven’t even signed Mousasi yet,” he said. “How do I sign a contract when the guy is not even signed to the company? It’s interesting, I like the fight, but I’m not going to go fight the best guys in the world without getting closer to a title, or a title shot. I want my shot at the belt and I’m not just going to keep fighting these guys for nothing.”

Still, Luke wants something to be added to the pot, as he once again asked for an interim title fight to be on the line.

“But, we’ll see what happens. If they put a title on the line, an interim title, or make the champion actually fight a contender then I’d actually be happy to sign for a fight and moving forward and do something. Until then, you have Yoel Romero waiting for a title shot, you got the Whittaker kid thinking he’s in line for a title shot, Mousasi is the only one who is talking about fighting right now,” he added.

“I don’t need to fight, I’m building a house, I got other things going on, I want to fight, but, it’s got to be right. The time has to be right. We are the heart and soul of the division, every guy in the division is not fighting. Everybody is waiting for a title shot and Mousasi is the only one pushing to make a fight happen.”

At the end of the day, like Anderson Silva before him, Rockhold is tired of waiting around for something to happen that interests him such as an interim title fight, and is taking UFC to task for not properly stepping up to the plate.

“If they get their shit together and make something happen, I’ll be glad to sign a fight, but they need to fucking straighten their shit out and make something happen,” said Luke.

“The company is kind of losing it these days. I don’t know what happened to the old company where the best fighters fought the best and what built this company. Now they just, it’s a spectator sport, they are just putting freak shows together.”

“If it’s just money fights, I’ll do that somewhere else, fuck. You can let me go of my contract and I can go fight big money fights somewhere else. I’m here in this company to fight for titles, and if there is no path to that, I’m out, let me go,” he concluded.

Luke, though, reiterated he does want to keep fighting the best in UFC as long as there is a clear goal for him laid out to where he can reclaim his strap.

But as we’ve seen recently, the promotion doesn’t take too kindly to threats.