Luke Rockhold will be fighting this weekend for the first time in over 3 years when he faces former title challenger Paulo Costa at UFC 278 in Salt Lake City.
Rockhold is very confident in his grappling skills in MMA. He is a bjj black belt and a former blue belt world champion in the Gi and is a No Gi purple belt world champion. He has regularly trained with BJJ world champion Buchecha.
In an interview with Combate, Buchecha explains that the first time he trained with Rokchold was in 2013 and admits that he has already been submitted by the middleweight in the gym.
Luke is a very good black belt. He’s legit. He’s the guy I roll with when I go train at AKA. He loves to train without the Gi, and he is against whom I have the hardest time rolling in AKA. He has a different game, dangerous, with footlocks and inverted triangles. When I go training with him I am always aware, because if I lose focus he submits me. In my opinion, he has the best ground game in MMA, out of the athletes I’ve trained with.
Rockhold talked about his grappling skills:
“I think I’m the best grappler in MMA. They don’t talk about my grappling because I don’t go for submissions, I go for position… People risk positions by going for submissions, and I just dominate position… I get submissions to gain top position and gain an advantage, a tactical advantage.”
He added, what would have happened if he had faced the now retired BJJ legend Demian Maia in MM:
“I don’t think anybody competes with me in this game on the ground. There’s not one man that understands the position of leverage and dominance (like me)… It would be a one-sided show against Demian Maia if we ever fought. It would be a one-sided show against anybody.”
Rockhold said that he found the current BJJ scene strange and that he doesn’t understand the trend of grapplers guard pulling and hunting for leglocks:
Bjj is somewhat suspect these days and you know I’ll have some fun with this kid Nick. I haven’t seen too much of him really. He fared well for himself pretty well, took second at ADCC and I’ve done a little homework he seems to bully guys around with his wrestling and this is like decent high school wrestling which doesn’t mean too much when it comes to me. I wrestle with the big boys so I mean he’s a he’s a good wrestler for Jiu Jitsu. I think you’ll find that I’ll be able to push him there I’ll be able to get takedowns if I need them. Then when it comes to the grappling you know, I’m a physical guy and a lot of these guys aren’t physical and I can match them in so many ways there so I’m excited that he’s a he’s not one of those stupid leglock guys that just butt scoots.
This whole this whole modern-day jujitsu thing kind of pisses me off. mm-hmm it’s pretty stupid all the sport jiu-jitsu where the guys just all leg lock-based when they just compromise themselves trying to get these foot locks and so it’s nice to have a guy that’s can actually bring it…
What do you think?
New Footage: Khabib Ragdolls Luke Rockhold
The post Luke Rockold on His Grappling Skills: “Against Demian Maia, It Would Be One-Sided” appeared first on Bjj Eastern Europe.