{"id":385981,"date":"2021-05-21T07:50:33","date_gmt":"2021-05-21T14:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=385981"},"modified":"2021-05-21T07:51:05","modified_gmt":"2021-05-21T14:51:05","slug":"luke-rockhold-says-no-one-in-the-ufc-middleweight-top-15-wants-to-fight-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/luke-rockhold-says-no-one-in-the-ufc-middleweight-top-15-wants-to-fight-him\/","title":{"rendered":"Luke Rockhold says no one in the UFC middleweight top-15 wants to fight him"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold says that no one in the current UFC middleweight top-15 wants to have a fight against him.<\/p>\n<p>Rockhold hasn&#8217;t fought since a KO loss to current UFC light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz at UFC 239 in July 2019. He has been dealing with injuries ever since then, including a shoulder injury, that has resulted in him having had an extended layoff. However, he has been back in the gym recently and has made it clear that he is hoping to return to the Octagon later this summer or sometime in the fall. And when he does return to the cage, Rockhold has made it clear that he desires a top-15 opponent in his return.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ZQw95a8kwSI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Helen Yee<\/a>, Rockhold said that he wants to fight a ranked opponent for his comeback fight, but thus far, everyone in the top-15 rankings has turned him down.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of guys but none of them want to sign the contract. Everyone wants to run around. There&#8217;s guys that make sense. Uriah Hall was an option &#8211; he didn\u2019t want that. Kevin Holland was an option &#8211; doesn\u2019t seem like that was an option. (Darren) Till was thrown around, I think people jumped on that one. I\u2019m not opposed to anyone, Paulo Costa, anybody in that range. I mean, the Italian kid (Marvin Vettori) jumped &#8211; he beat Kevin Holland and he got a title fight. I just don\u2019t understand that. He beat a guy coming off a loss,&#8221; Rockhold said (h\/t <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/2021\/5\/21\/22447085\/luke-rockhold-frustrated-return-plan-theres-a-lot-of-guys-but-none-of-them-want-to-sign-the-contract\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MMAFighting.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of these guys need to be proven, need to be tested and I\u2019m pretty sure I came off a world title fight. I\u2019ve been inactive but I needed the time off but there&#8217;s also injuries and everything I had to assess and then had to take care of. So it\u2019s not exactly my choice but the time off has suited me well. I\u2019ve healed all my issues and I\u2019m ready to go. I just need a fight, an opponent, a contract.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Who do you want to see <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/luke-rockhold-suggests-there-are-multiple-people-in-the-top-10-making-excuses-not-to-fight-him\/\">Luke Rockhold<\/a> fight in his return to the Octagon?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold says that no one in the current UFC middleweight top-15 wants to have a fight against him. Rockhold hasn&#8217;t fought since a KO loss to current UFC light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz at UFC 239 in July 2019. He has been dealing with injuries ever since then, including a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54477,"featured_media":305299,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10150,39610],"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 says no one in the UFC middleweight top-15 wants to fight him | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold says that no one in the current UFC middleweight top-15 wants to have a fight against him.\" \/>\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\/ufc\/luke-rockhold-says-no-one-in-the-ufc-middleweight-top-15-wants-to-fight-him\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Luke Rockhold says no one in the UFC middleweight top-15 wants to fight him | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold says that no one in the current UFC middleweight top-15 wants to have a fight against him.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/luke-rockhold-says-no-one-in-the-ufc-middleweight-top-15-wants-to-fight-him\/\" \/>\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=\"2021-05-21T14:50:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-05-21T14:51:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/Luke-Rockhold.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"696\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"399\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Adam D Martin\" \/>\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=\"Adam D Martin\" \/>\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\/ufc\/luke-rockhold-says-no-one-in-the-ufc-middleweight-top-15-wants-to-fight-him\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/luke-rockhold-says-no-one-in-the-ufc-middleweight-top-15-wants-to-fight-him\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Adam D Martin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/592783aae67f8fc778dab51d7d3246b1\"},\"headline\":\"Luke Rockhold says no one in the UFC middleweight top-15 wants to fight him\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-21T14:50:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-21T14:51:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/luke-rockhold-says-no-one-in-the-ufc-middleweight-top-15-wants-to-fight-him\/\"},\"wordCount\":378,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Luke Rockhold\",\"UFC\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/luke-rockhold-says-no-one-in-the-ufc-middleweight-top-15-wants-to-fight-him\/#respond\"]}],\"copyrightYear\":\"2021\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/luke-rockhold-says-no-one-in-the-ufc-middleweight-top-15-wants-to-fight-him\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/luke-rockhold-says-no-one-in-the-ufc-middleweight-top-15-wants-to-fight-him\/\",\"name\":\"Luke Rockhold says no one in the UFC middleweight top-15 wants to fight him | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-21T14:50:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-21T14:51:05+00:00\",\"description\":\"Former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold says that no one in the current UFC middleweight top-15 wants to have a fight against him.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/luke-rockhold-says-no-one-in-the-ufc-middleweight-top-15-wants-to-fight-him\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/luke-rockhold-says-no-one-in-the-ufc-middleweight-top-15-wants-to-fight-him\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/luke-rockhold-says-no-one-in-the-ufc-middleweight-top-15-wants-to-fight-him\/#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\":\"UFC\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Luke Rockhold says no one in the UFC middleweight top-15 wants to fight him\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"description\":\"MMA &amp; UFC News, Results &amp; Fight Videos\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png\",\"width\":600,\"height\":148,\"caption\":\"| BJPenn.com\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/bjpenndotcom\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/0fficialbjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bjpenndotcom\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/592783aae67f8fc778dab51d7d3246b1\",\"name\":\"Adam D Martin\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/author\/adam-d-martin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Luke Rockhold says no one in the UFC middleweight top-15 wants to fight him | BJPenn.com","description":"Former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold says that no one in the current UFC middleweight top-15 wants to have a fight against him.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/luke-rockhold-says-no-one-in-the-ufc-middleweight-top-15-wants-to-fight-him\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Luke Rockhold says no one in the UFC middleweight top-15 wants to fight him | BJPenn.com","og_description":"Former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold says that no one in the current UFC middleweight top-15 wants to have a fight against him.","og_url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/luke-rockhold-says-no-one-in-the-ufc-middleweight-top-15-wants-to-fight-him\/","og_site_name":"| BJPenn.com","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn","article_published_time":"2021-05-21T14:50:33+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-05-21T14:51:05+00:00","og_image":[{"width":696,"height":399,"url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/Luke-Rockhold.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Adam D Martin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@bjpenndotcom","twitter_site":"@bjpenndotcom","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Adam D Martin","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/luke-rockhold-says-no-one-in-the-ufc-middleweight-top-15-wants-to-fight-him\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/luke-rockhold-says-no-one-in-the-ufc-middleweight-top-15-wants-to-fight-him\/"},"author":{"name":"Adam D Martin","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/592783aae67f8fc778dab51d7d3246b1"},"headline":"Luke Rockhold says no one in the UFC middleweight top-15 wants to fight him","datePublished":"2021-05-21T14:50:33+00:00","dateModified":"2021-05-21T14:51:05+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/luke-rockhold-says-no-one-in-the-ufc-middleweight-top-15-wants-to-fight-him\/"},"wordCount":378,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Luke Rockhold","UFC"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/luke-rockhold-says-no-one-in-the-ufc-middleweight-top-15-wants-to-fight-him\/#respond"]}],"copyrightYear":"2021","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/luke-rockhold-says-no-one-in-the-ufc-middleweight-top-15-wants-to-fight-him\/","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/luke-rockhold-says-no-one-in-the-ufc-middleweight-top-15-wants-to-fight-him\/","name":"Luke Rockhold says no one in the UFC middleweight top-15 wants to fight him | BJPenn.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-05-21T14:50:33+00:00","dateModified":"2021-05-21T14:51:05+00:00","description":"Former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold says that no one in the current UFC middleweight top-15 wants to have a fight against him.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/luke-rockhold-says-no-one-in-the-ufc-middleweight-top-15-wants-to-fight-him\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/luke-rockhold-says-no-one-in-the-ufc-middleweight-top-15-wants-to-fight-him\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/luke-rockhold-says-no-one-in-the-ufc-middleweight-top-15-wants-to-fight-him\/#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":"UFC","item":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Luke Rockhold says no one in the UFC middleweight top-15 wants to fight him"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/","name":"| BJPenn.com","description":"MMA &amp; UFC News, Results &amp; Fight Videos","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization","name":"| BJPenn.com","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png","contentUrl":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png","width":600,"height":148,"caption":"| BJPenn.com"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/instagram.com\/bjpenn","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/bjpenn","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/bjpenndotcom\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/0fficialbjpenn","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn","https:\/\/twitter.com\/bjpenndotcom"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/592783aae67f8fc778dab51d7d3246b1","name":"Adam D Martin","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/author\/adam-d-martin\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385981"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54477"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}