Luke Rockhold joins 'Fighter and The Kid' podcast to eat, look toward the future
On the latest episode of The Fighter and The Kid podcast, co-host Brendan Schaub has a great sit-down conversation with new middleweight champion Luke Rockhold during which "The Hybrid" remembers Rockhold predicting his success, years ago. "It was your dream from the get-go," Brendan remembered.
"When you said it, I was like, 'damn, this dude is for real.'"
Days after making his dreams come true, Rockhold is still having trouble realizing that it's happened. "I knew I was going to get here. I knew it was going to happen. It was a matter of time. But I'm still trying to take it in," he admits.
"It's just funny. [You think], and you're like, yeah, 'yup. I am the champ (laughs).' Undisputed. There's no ifs, ands, or buts."
Being the champion comes with more responsibilities, as well as more gold. Rockhold conceded that the media obligations are larger than ever, but also expressed confidence that he could navigate everything in his own way.
"You can kind of make your own schedule, as champion," he says.
"You can do as much as you'd like. I've always been a team player. I've always been game."
Rockhold is quite media friendly, but he doesn't worry about managing his persona to be appealing or sanitized. Good or bad, he's going to say what he believes is true.
"I've always been myself, and I've realized that not being yourself, holding back and biting your lip all the time, doesn't help you," he reasons.
"So, I've let go. And I don't put a filter on a lot of things I say. I've been doing that for a long time ... If I don't like a guy, I'm going to call it like it is."
Listen and watch more of Luke calling things as he sees them, including talking about why losing to Vitor Belfort was the best thing to ever happen to him ("Thank you"), but also why he wants that rematch ("Thank you, but I'm going to fu-king kill you.") in the full episode above, and below!
Oh yeah, you also don't want to miss Luke busting Brendan's chops for picking Chris Weidman, pre-UFC 194. He has Brendan's voice down, pat!
How to listen:
Your Privacy Choices | Closed Captioning 
