Luke Rockhold didn’t mince words when reflecting on his BKFC debut.
After stepping into the bare-knuckle scene in 2023 to face Mike Perry at BKFC 41, the former UFC middleweight champion walked away battered and unimpressed. Perry stopped him in the second round by TKO, leaving Rockhold with a broken tooth and a brutal lip injury. The night was enough to convince Rockhold he had no business in a sport he calls reckless.
“Bare-knuckle boxing is not a fight,” Rockhold told MMA Fighting. “I realized I [walked in there], I’m not losing my fcking teeth without using everything I’ve worked for my whole life. People are fcking dumb. That’s a dumbass sport.”
He didn’t hold back when describing the ring either.
“Metal [ropes] that you just hit, and they throw you back into the brawl. There’s no way to gauge that distance, and it’s like who’s willing to lose their face first for f*cking nothing.”
Rockhold believes the format strips fighters of their tools. Known for his lethal kicks and grappling pedigree, the 22-fight MMA veteran was confined to just punches in his fight against Perry. For someone with a diverse arsenal, the limitations of BKFC didn’t sit well.
“It couldn’t be any worse than bare-knuckle boxing, I’ll tell you that,” Rockhold said as he geared up for his boxing debut. “I’m pretty sure I hamstringed myself as hard as you can [in that fight]. This is different. I feel like my boxing has come a long way. No one has really seen it, for me to put the shoes on, get in the ring, get that dance, get that movement. F*ck, I can do it. I can do it with the best of the game, and I’m hurting people left and right at the gym. I don’t expect it to be any different.”
Rockhold is now set to face Darren Till in a boxing match at the Misfits Boxing event on Aug. 30. Despite his rocky relationship with bare-knuckle fighting, he’s not entirely ruling out a return if the rules change.
“One thing that I would do that I think is way more badass, and not so fcking stupid, because you can’t gauge distance in bare-knuckle boxing,” Rockhold said. “I would do bare-knuckle kickboxing. I would fcking rematch Mike Perry and put him to sleep. I don’t think he wants that.”
He emphasized the difference kicks would make in managing space and introducing actual technique to the fight.
“There’s no way to gauge distance in bare-knuckle boxing, and they’ve got metal ropes, you’re just bouncing in and out. Bare-knuckle kickboxing, I think there would actually be some technique to it, and I think that would be badass. That would be a real, real fight. That would be fun. I’d f*ck somebody up in that.”
Luke Rockhold has already dipped his feet in nearly every form of combat, MMA, Karate Combat, grappling, bare-knuckle, and now boxing. Coming off a Karate Combat win over Joe Schilling in April, the former UFC champ is hungry for more and excited to challenge himself in yet another arena.
“I like it,” Rockhold said. “People have got to stay challenged. I really believe in it. People f*cking cut off. People are soft. It’s a copy culture. Everyone’s just in technology and soft bullshit. I like to challenge myself.”
As for that potential Mike Perry rematch, Rockhold is open to it and says if the format includes kicks, he’s all in.
“It would be f*cking badass,” Rockhold said. “C’mon boy.”
