Luke Rockhold placed on a gutsy efficiency towards Paulo Costa, however one couldn’t assist however discover how drained the previous UFC and Strikeforce middleweight champion was in the course of the combat.
Rockhold admits that the excessive altitude of Salt Lake Metropolis undoubtedly performed a think about his defeat together with the ultra-conditioned Costa taking him down and breaking his nostril within the first spherical. He was additionally coming into the combat off a three-year layoff and nursing a number of accidents as well.
“I feel the altitude undoubtedly performed an element,” Rockhold, who misplaced to Costa through unanimous choice, instructed Ariel Helwani throughout a latest look on The MMA Hour (h/t MMA Information). “I feel my preparation, I used to be simply hitting partitions in coaching, completely different injures, tearing cartilage with like, an indirect factor. We simply tried to place all of it on the market and hit some roadblocks. I feel the altitude undoubtedly performed in.”
“I didn’t anticipate him to get the takedown and to interrupt my nostril within the first,” he added. “A type of rabbit punches within the first spherical broke my nostril. I used to be having to breathe out my mouth, and altitude, and struggling off the underside, getting by means of the nerves of every part. I feel as soon as I acquired by means of that, every part simply set in like, ‘F*ck, right here we’re. Time to combat.’”
Rockhold hinted at and later confirmed his retirement after his UFC 278 loss. The 37-year-old MMA veteran, who holds notable stoppage victories over Michael Bisping, Lyoto Machida, and Chris Weidman, is prone to be inducted into the UFC Corridor of Fame in some unspecified time in the future sooner or later.
