Another loss could be disastrous for Costa’s career, and so he looks to be in phenomenal shape heading into this fight, but according to Rockhold, it’s simply a matter of himself. Costa got knocked out by Adesanya at UFC 253 and then dropped a unanimous decision to Marvin Vettori last October. Costa is a former middleweight title challenger who finds himself similarly positioned with his back against the wall. This kid’s dangerous as hell on the feet, so it all depends on Israel, what his head space is and how he fights it.”īut before Rockhold goes counting his chickens, he has his own fight to worry about. Even Israel could probably f****** put him away on the ground. We all know Alex Pereira sucks on the ground. Israel’s got to check himself and he’s got to fight MMA.

So if Israel let’s him get in his head this time around, that’s interesting. If he’s in his head and you let guys get in your head - he lost to him in a close one and then he got clipped in the second one because he let him get in his head. “If Israel tries to fight him - because he’s in his head. “It just depends on how Israel fights,”Rockhold said. Still, as a former champion and with the current state of the middleweight division, Rockhold could be right that a win can catapult him into a title shot, it’s just a matter of against whom? Current champion Israel Adesanya is set to defend his title against kickboxing rival Alex Pereira at UFC 281, and Rockhold isn’t entirely sure who will come out of that one with the belt.

Rockhold then tried a move up to light heavyweight, but was again knocked out in the aforementioned Blachowicz fight. He lost the title to Michael Bisping just six months later, rebounded with a win over David Branch, then got knocked out by Yoel Romero in an interim title fight in 2018. Rockhold won the UFC middleweight title at UFC 194 back in 2015, but after taking the belt, his career took a precipitous downturn. “Next,” Rockhold told Helen Yee when asked how soon he believes he could fight for the championship. 6-ranked middleweight in the UFC’s rankings, will be good enough to get him another shot at the 185-pound championship. But despite his long absence from the sport and from the division, Rockhold believes that a win over Costa, currently the No. It will be the former middleweight champion’s first fight in over three years, since losing to Jan Blachowicz at UFC 239, and his first middleweight bout in over four. This Saturday, Rockhold takes on Costa in the co-main event of UFC 278. Luke Rockhold believes that a good performance over Paulo Costa will get him a middleweight title shot.

Please dont worry bout me im fine