Luke Rockhold achieved a lot in his MMA career after debuting in 2007.
After making history as the last Strikeforce middleweight champion, he went on to conquer the UFC’s 185 pound division.
However, Rockhold also suffered some big setbacks in this time, with the American appearing in several opponents’ highlight reels.
Since parting ways with the UFC in 2022, he has looked to test himself in several different rulesets in order to grow as a martial artist and competitor.
Rockhold believes that he’ll be the one dishing out the knockout this time around when he faces Darren Till in the main event of Misfits Boxing 22 later today.
Luke Rockhold was knocked out by Vitor Belfort in his UFC debut in 2013
After beating Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza to win the Strikeforce middleweight title in 2011, Luke Rockhold successfully defended the belt on two occasions.
His scheduled third title defense never ended up happening due to him suffering from an injury that lasted until Strikeforce was closed down by Zuffa in January of 2013.
This meant that Rockhold would join the promotion’s roster, with his Octagon debut being announced for May of that year, where he would headline a Fight Night card against a legend of the sport.
UFC on FX 8 saw the American head to Brazil for a middleweight main event against former light heavyweight champion, Vitor Belfort.
Unsurprisingly, the home crowd was loud in their support for Belfort, and this only increased whenever he found success in the opening round.
‘The Phenom’ answered some of his opponent’s kicks with one of his own, landing a huge spinning heel kick that dropped Rockhold before he finished the fight with punches in just over two and a half minutes.
Luke Rockhold was incredibly critical of Vitor Belfort after this fight
Luke Rockhold was fairly outspoken around this time when claiming that Vitor Belfort wasn’t a clean athlete.
Some of his suspicions were validated several years after their fight, when it was reported that Belfort had failed a drug test in 2012, which wasn’t made public.
“It’s nothing I didn’t already expect of him,” Rockhold told Bleacher Report in reaction to the news. “I knew the man was cheating the whole time, it was just a matter of how much he was cheating… I don’t know what more I can say about it. The guy is a joke. He’s a disgrace to the sport.”
Earlier this year, Belfort was inducted into the Pioneer wing of the UFC Hall of Fame.