Michael Bisping was left gobsmacked by Luke Rockhold’s latest performance.
The former UFC middleweight champion watched along from home as an old rival made his Karate Combat debut opposite kickboxing phenom Joe Schilling on Saturday night.
Rockhold mixed kicks and takedowns during an impressive first round.
However, Schilling turned the tables in the second stanza as he badly bloodied his opponent’s nose and put himself in the perfect position to close the show in the final frame.
Impressively, Rockhold remained composed and ultimately closed the show with a clean right hook that sent his rival crashing to the canvas at the midway point of round three.
The ex-UFC champion landed a few ground strikes before the fight was waved off and he walked away with his first victory in any combat sport since beating David Branch in 2017.
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Bisping streamed his live reaction to the fight on YouTube.
The UFC Hall of Famer screamed ‘Oh!’ as he watched Rockhold score a brutal KO win.
He added: “Luke gets him down. Drops him with a right hook counter, and that could be it. That’s it, over! Luke Rockhold with the finish with about one minute left in round three.”
“Fair play to Rockhold, man. Still got it.
“I am happy for him. It’s always nice to see a former opponent and guys who leave the UFC have success and make money.”
Bisping and Rockhold first fought in Dana White’s league a decade ago.
On that occasion, the Englishman was dropped by a head kick before being forced to tap out to Rockhold’s guillotine choke submission after less than six minutes.
Just 18 months later, Rockhold was the champion, and he was looking for a short-notice opponent to face him at UFC 199 in June 2016.
Bisping stepped in for the injured Chris Weidman on 17 days’ notice and scored a monumental upset win by knocking out Rockhold in the first round of their rematch.
‘The Count’ trash-talked his rival before and after their second fight – he was even giving him stick in the moments leading up to the start of their rematch.
They never had a trilogy fight because Bisping retired in 2018 and Rockhold suffered three defeats in four subsequent fights before being released from the UFC in 2022.
Rockhold transitioned to bare-knuckle boxing, but that ended in disaster when Mike Perry knocked out his teeth and made him quit in April 2023.
Now, he’s back in the win column and Bisping couldn’t be happier after bringing his long-running feud with Rockhold to an end a few years ago.
News Summary:
- Michael Bisping shares live reaction to old UFC rival Luke Rockhold rolling back the years with brutal knockout
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