Luke Rockhold: Bare-knuckle boxing ‘a dumbass sport’ all about who’s ‘willing to lose their face first for f*cking nothing’

Consider Luke Rockhold truly one and done when it comes to his brief stint with BKFC.

The former UFC middleweight champion made the surprising move to bare-knuckle fighting back in 2023 for a marquee matchup against Mike Perry. The fight didn’t go his way with Rockhold succumbing to punches in the second round after his teeth were broken and he suffered a gruesome cut across his lip.

Immediately afterwards, Rockhold admitted bare-knuckle fighting wasn’t for him, and truth be told, he’s just not that impressed with the sport as a whole.

“Bare-knuckle boxing is not a fight,” Rockhold told MMA Fighting. “I realized I [walked in there], I’m not losing my f*cking teeth without using everything I’ve worked for my whole life. People are f*cking dumb. That’s a dumbass sport.

“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 wasn’t allowed to use many of his best weapons because he could only throw punches in the fight against Perry. Well known for having some incredibly nasty kicks and a strong ground game, Rockhold limited himself by going to BKFC and he’s actually doing that again with his upcoming boxing match against Darren Till at a Misfits Boxing event on Aug. 30.

While both sports involve trading punches, Rockhold says nothing took away weapons from him more than bare-knuckle fighting and there’s a much different skill set involved with boxing.

“It couldn’t be any worse than bare-knuckle boxing, I’ll tell you that,” Rockhold said about preparation 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.

“I go out there and do what I’m doing everyday now, I keep training, stay healthy, I don’t think Darren should be able to exist more than a few rounds.”

As much as he didn’t enjoy the whole BKFC experience, Rockhold isn’t opposed to taking the gloves off again for another fight, but he wants a different rule set this time.

Rather than just blasting each other with punches, the 22-fight MMA veteran would love to throw one more wrinkle into a bare-knuckle fight.

“One thing that I would do that I think is way more badass, and not so f*cking stupid, because you can’t gauge distance in bare-knuckle boxing,” Rockhold said. “I would do bare-knuckle kickboxing. I would f*cking rematch Mike Perry and put him to sleep. I don’t think he wants that.

“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.”

Rockhold has already checked off a lot of boxes when it comes to his combat sports career after competing in MMA, bare-knuckle fighting, Karate Combat, grappling matches and now making his professional boxing debut in August.

He’s excited to add one more sport to his résumé with hopes that boxing might become his primary focus after facing Till.

“I like it,” Rockhold said about competing in every combat sport. “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 far as that rematch with Perry goes, Rockhold is dead serious when it comes to fighting him again, but only if it’s bare-knuckle kickboxing this time.

“It would be f*cking badass,” Rockhold said about fighting Perry again. “C’mon boy.”