I’ve got some bad news for Chris Weidman fans, particularly the ones looking to avoid a repeat of UFC 194, as the Luke Rockhold who returns to action this fall in “The Empire State” will not be the same Luke Rockhold who got smashed by Yoel Romero at UFC 221.
That’s because the former UFC middleweight champion has reinvented himself ahead of his “All American” rematch, according to head coach Javier Mendez, which is scheduled for the UFC 230 pay-per-view (PPV) event on Sat., Nov. 3, 2018 inside Madison Square Garden in New York City.
“He’s going to come out a better version of himself,” Mendez told BJPenn.com Radio. “And Luke is reinventing himself all the time. And he has a lot more confidence going into this. We’ll see what happens, but to me it’s always one of those situations where whoever screws up first. They’re both such great fighters. We have less to be concerned as far as screwing up. So on that edge, I give it to us. So am I favoring Luke? Absolutely. What will happen? Who knows? But I favor Luke 100 percent.”
Rockhold (16-4) already holds a win over Weidman from the UFC 194 PPV back in late 2015. He would surrender the middleweight strap in his very first title defense when he battled Michael Bisping, then rebounded against David Branch before succumbing to Romero.
As for Weidman (14-3), his Rockhold loss kicked off a dreadful three-fight losing streak in which he was finished all three times. He finally got back to his winning ways by submitting Kelvin Gastelum, then found himself sidelined for over a year with injury.
Who are you picking in this pivotal 185-pound rematch?