{"id":249411,"date":"2017-09-16T06:49:50","date_gmt":"2017-09-16T13:49:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=249411"},"modified":"2017-09-16T06:49:50","modified_gmt":"2017-09-16T13:49:50","slug":"robert-whittaker-fight-bisping-gsp-title-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/luke-rockhold\/robert-whittaker-fight-bisping-gsp-title-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Luke Rockhold Eyes a Future Fight With Robert Whittaker"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The UFC&#8217;s middleweight division has been in a weird, chaotic state ever since Luke Rockhold was knocked out by the hands of Michael Bisping. Some fighters like Ronaldo &#8216;Jacare&#8217; Souza went on strike, Yoel Romero vowed to not go back his home in Cuba until he got a title shot, and Gegard Mousasi left the UFC altogether. Luke Rockhold has expressed his frustrations in the past about how things were going, which is why he wants to keep the wheels of the division going. No matter who wins at UFC 217 between Bisping and Georges St-Pierre, the champ is supposed to fight Robert Whittaker. If that doesn&#8217;t happen, then Rockhold will.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cRobert Whittaker has proved himself top dog and I believe he and I are the two best guys in the middleweight division.\u00a0So, [the winner of Michael Bisping and Georges St-Pierre] should definitely fight him. But if not, I will.\u00a0I\u2019ll fight any man at the top and Whittaker is seemingly that guy. I was impressed. First time up in the division, it was a strong, composed showing. I\u2019ve been watching him come along since and he\u2019s growing nicely. Whittaker\u2019s a really tough kid.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Morning movement with <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RyanLoco?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@RyanLoco<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/jZfkKp7AOH\">pic.twitter.com\/jZfkKp7AOH<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Luke Rockhold (@LukeRockhold) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LukeRockhold\/status\/906170318435299329?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 8, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cWell, obviously Bisping needs to f-cking step up and fight somebody.\u00a0He\u2019s been a coward lately. Avoiding every top fighter.\u00a0He should\u2019ve fought Yoel Romero, but didn\u2019t.\u00a0Then the UFC tried to get him to fight Jacare [Souza] and he ran from that, too. Said he was injured.\u00a0So, then he\u2019s tried to get the GSP fight but they gave him Yoel Romero again, and suddenly once more he\u2019s injured.\u00a0It\u2019s why, even though I\u2019d love my own rematch with Bisping, you have to have a willing dance partner. And we all know he isn\u2019t a willing dance partner when it comes to fighting any of us at the top of the division.\u201d <span>\u2014<\/span>\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailytelegraph.com.au\/sport\/former-ufc-middleweight-champ-luke-rockhold-tips-title-fight-with-robert-whittaker-in-2018\/news-story\/7e16691c6209c273cfdee61623de3796\">Luke Rockhold speaking to The Daily Telegraph<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The hard-hitting Aussie has racked up an impressive eight-fight win streak in the UFC, eventually winning the interim UFC middleweight title against Yoel Romero. Luke Rockhold surely wants to win the chess game of getting back his former title the best way he can, but he cant let his eyes wander too much though. Rockhold still has to get past former two-division World Series of Fighting champion, David Branch. UFC Pittsburgh goes down tonight, headlined by Rockhold and Branch&#8217;s fight.<\/p>\n<p><i>This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>BJPenn.com<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>\u00a0on 9\/16\/2017.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The UFC&#8217;s middleweight division has been in a weird, chaotic state ever since Luke Rockhold was knocked out by the hands of Michael Bisping. Some fighters like Ronaldo &#8216;Jacare&#8217; Souza went on strike, Yoel Romero vowed to not go back his home in Cuba until he got a title shot, and Gegard Mousasi left the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54442,"featured_media":227599,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10150,10582],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Luke Rockhold Eyes a Future Fight With Robert Whittaker | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/luke-rockhold\/robert-whittaker-fight-bisping-gsp-title-2018\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Luke Rockhold Eyes a Future Fight With Robert Whittaker | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The UFC&#8217;s middleweight division has been in a weird, chaotic state ever since Luke Rockhold was knocked out by the hands of Michael Bisping. Some fighters like Ronaldo &#8216;Jacare&#8217; Souza went on strike, Yoel Romero vowed to not go back his home in Cuba until he got a title shot, and Gegard Mousasi left the [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/luke-rockhold\/robert-whittaker-fight-bisping-gsp-title-2018\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"| BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-09-16T13:49:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Robert-Whittaker.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"730\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"380\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Justin Golightly\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Justin Golightly\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/luke-rockhold\/robert-whittaker-fight-bisping-gsp-title-2018\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/luke-rockhold\/robert-whittaker-fight-bisping-gsp-title-2018\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Justin Golightly\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/522e5fec9637cffa3bac682a2da4afa2\"},\"headline\":\"Luke Rockhold Eyes a Future Fight With Robert Whittaker\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-16T13:49:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-09-16T13:49:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/luke-rockhold\/robert-whittaker-fight-bisping-gsp-title-2018\/\"},\"wordCount\":428,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Luke Rockhold\",\"Robert Whittaker\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2017\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/luke-rockhold\/robert-whittaker-fight-bisping-gsp-title-2018\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/luke-rockhold\/robert-whittaker-fight-bisping-gsp-title-2018\/\",\"name\":\"Luke Rockhold Eyes a Future Fight With Robert Whittaker | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-16T13:49:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-09-16T13:49:50+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/luke-rockhold\/robert-whittaker-fight-bisping-gsp-title-2018\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/luke-rockhold\/robert-whittaker-fight-bisping-gsp-title-2018\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/luke-rockhold\/robert-whittaker-fight-bisping-gsp-title-2018\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MMA News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Luke Rockhold\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/luke-rockhold\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Luke Rockhold Eyes a Future Fight With Robert Whittaker\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"description\":\"MMA &amp; 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