Luke Rockhold: ‘If I beat Alexander Gustafsson, I should be the f—king champion’

For a while now, former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold has been talking about a possible jump to light heavyweight. Since he started doing so, he has also been trading barbs with ex-title contender Alexander Gustafsson.

In a recent interview with Submission Radio, Rockhold believes a fight with Gustafsson would draw huge. But if he ends up winning, he is expecting something big in return.

“There’s a lot of interest in the fight. He’s a guy that’s been right there, that’s only lost to champions. He’s the top, he’s the cream of the crop in the division,” Rockhold said. “You beat him, you basically are the champion. The only problem is that DC is the champion. So, what? I go fight Alexander Gustafsson when DC is fighting for the heavyweight title?”

“I’m not gonna fight Gustafsson for nothing, and I’m not gonna put myself in the position where it creates a weird moment for me and DC. So, I think it all depends on what happens with this fight with him and Stipe. If that goes forward, yeah, I mean, I’ll fight Gustafsson.”

“But once you beat Gustafsson if DC’s out – If I beat Gustafsson, I should be the f—ng champion (laughs),” he continued. “Just realistically. And I mean, if you think about it, he is the man to beat, other than DC. And so the whole division is in a weird space. It’s almost similar to how the middleweight division was. I guess it’s a little tied up at the moment. You kind of have to wait and see to what happens in July.”

As of this moment, this matchup is still far from being made. But if it does materialize, Rockhold feels he has a major advantage, no matter where the fight goes.

“I have a lot of weapons that would work against him,” Rockhold said of Gustafsson. “I’m gonna have a lot more weight throwing around. I’m a lot more powerful when I’m up in weight, and I can change the fight in many ways. And I don’t think there’s any way that Gustafsson will want to tangle with me on the ground.”

“I mean, I could go back to my style of pushing guys into a realm where they’re uncomfortable,” he continued. “And when I have the weight to do it I can really dictate the pace of the fight. Sucking all that weight off, it kind of takes away from some of my advantages in the fight.”

“So I can really push the pace of the fight, I can wrestle better, the hits are heavier, I have more power in my hands and feet. There are a lot of things I can attack with Gustafsson. He’s a big body and there’s a lot of ways to attack him.”

Rockhold last fought at UFC 221 in February, where he was knocked out by Yoel Romero in the third round. Gustafsson, meanwhile, last saw action last May, where he scored a fifth-round knockout against Glover Teixeira in his home country of Sweden.