Luke Rockhold is the champion of two MMA organizations

In the life of any athlete there are periods of both recovery and recession. In this article, we'll talk about a fighter named Luke Rockhold, who managed to visit the champion of two prestigious organizations MMA - UFC and Strikeforce.

Appearance to the light and family

The fighter was born on October 17, 1984 in the United States of America, in the city of Santa Cruz, located in the state of California. Luke Rockhold is a native of the sports family, since his brother is a world-famous surfer, and his father is a well-known basketball player in the past. Luke himself already began to pay attention to the fight in school and eventually moved to jujitsu, according to the rules of which he could win several tournaments.

Fighting in mixed martial arts

As an MMA fighter, the American debuted in 2007. In the first fight, he was able to overcome Mike Martinez ahead of schedule with a painful technique on hand. However, already in his second fight, Luke Rockhold was knocked out, and Tony Rubalcava became his abuser.

After a while our hero was in Strikeforce. In this promotion, he won a series of brilliant victories, which eventually allowed him to fight for the champion's belt. In September 2011, Luke entered the cage with the Brazilian Ronaldo Souza, who at that time owned the title of the organization. The fight turned out to be competitive, and the judges gave their preference to Rockhold.

After the conquest of the belt, Luke had two successful defenses. His opponents were Keith Jardine and Tim Kennedy. After that, in early 2013, the promotion ceased to exist.

Performances in the Ultimate Fighting Championship

The debut in the leading organization of the world MMA was for the American extremely unsuccessful. His first rival was former promoter champion Vitor Belfort. Luke Rockhold before their fight expressed a strong confidence in his victory, but was severely knocked out by a Brazilian kick of the head with a turn in the head.

But already in his next fight a member of the American Kickboxing Academy team was rehabilitated before the public. The second opponent was Costas Philippe. The fight did not last all the allotted rounds, and the Greek was sent into a knockout blow to the liver. Also this battle of Luke Rockhold was recognized as one of the best for the evening, and the fighter himself was rewarded for the most brilliant knockout of the tournament.

This duel gave start to a series of very successful performances of the American, and in the next three fights such titans of the octagon as Tim Botch, Michael Bisping and Lyoto Machida were defeated.

Championship

Luke Rockhold, whose weight before the fight is 83.9 kilograms, thanks to which he clearly fits in the middle division, December 12, 2015 met with the owner of the time belt promotion Chris Weidman. In the first round, the challenger acted somewhat worse than the champion, but already in the second five-minute session he took the initiative and literally "interrupted" Weidman. In the fourth round, Luke was able to transfer Chris to the ground, but to consolidate the success failed. Everything was decided already in the fourth five-minute race, when Rockhall literally destroyed the champion in the stalls with his hands, severely smashing his face, which forced the referee to stop the spectacular duel.

Luke's championship lasted a short time, and already during the first defense of the title, he lost by knockout to the British Michael Bisping.