Ultimate Fighting Championship

Luke Rockhold calls out former heavyweight champ Fabricio Werdum

Published Mar. 23, 2017 6:00 a.m. ET

Damon Martin

Former middleweight champion Luke Rockhold is ready to book his next fight, but he's looking to jump up two divisions for a very unique challenge.

On Wednesday night's edition of "UFC Tonight," Rockhold asked for a matchup against former heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum.

Rockhold requested the fight due to some apparent bad blood shared between the two competitors when they were both competing in Strikeforce several years ago.

"Everyone's steaming over this new fight I brought up. I think me and [Fabricio] Werdum got some old beef from Strikeforce. He's a guy I've always wanted to fight," Rockhold revealed. "I've thought it through and I like the style matchup.

"Given what's going on in the middleweight division right now, screw that, I'm coming to heavyweight. Let's do this."

Rockhold has been out of action since last June when he suffered a knockout loss to current middleweight champion Michael Bisping at UFC 199.

Rockhold was originally scheduled to return this past November against Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza, but he suffered a knee injury that knocked him out of the fight.

Now it appears the former champion is ready to resume his career, but with Bisping tied up in a fight against Georges St-Pierre while Souza is now set to meet Robert Whittaker in April, Rockhold is ready to test the waters against a much bigger opponent.

"I don't know if I'll dance around too long [at heavyweight]. It's a fight I really want and I think it makes a lot of sense," Rockhold explained. "We can settle that.

"They're into making money fights, right? They want to make a money fight, sell some tickets -- let's do this thing."

Get more from Ultimate Fighting Championship Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

Ultimate Fighting Championship