Luke Rockhold fans must be overjoyed right now. Since September 16th, 2017, which was his last win against David Branch in the UFC, Luke has unfortunately been on a losing streak.
Until last night at Karate Combat 45. Joe Schilling, his opponent, a Muay Thai Kickboxing Legend, with over 40 professional fights spanning across Muay Thai, MMA, and Professional boxing, was the other half of the main event, and unfortunately for him, would be the guy that would aid Luke back into the win column.
Luke, before the bout, mentioned that he would be putting a beating on Joe Schilling by mixing in takedowns and being the more aggressive fighter and this proved to be prophetic.
“I’m going to treat him like a little b*tch!” – Luke Rockhold in the pre-fight promo for Karate Combat 45.
As soon as the bout started, Luke would start in the southpaw stance and fire left body kicks early, he would also mix in left high head kicks to keep Joe guessing.
To add to the 40-year-old’s frustration, Luke would also utilize trips and takedowns in order to negate the striking distance that Schilling was trying to control. In the 2nd round, Schilling would open up more with punches and even managed to make Rockhold seemingly break his nose as a result of the damage he was implementing with straight punches.
Rockhold was still able to effectively take Schilling down and use ground and pound to score more damage by the close of the 2nd round. The fight had a bit of a slower rhythm in the 3rd round with both men visibly slowing down due to the damage they both sustained and the overall pacing of the fight itself.
In the 3rd round, Rockhold landed a monster check right hook, which dropped Schilling to the canvas and Rockhold would then finish the job with brutal ground and pound signifying the end of the bout.
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After the fight finished Rockhold used the opportunity to call out UFC Legend Lyoto Machida.
“3 weeks’ notice, another infection this time I got, wasn’t the greatest setup but hey, …got the job done, just getting my feet wet, ” …..”You have to test yourself in different ways, man, you never know!”
“There’s only one man I want to fight in this pit, and that’s Lyoto Machida, and you’re lucky they don’t allow elbows, so no more nightmares about the elbows, bring it, let’s see what you got, let’s see what your pay cheques look like. Bring out that checkbook…., Lyoto, I know you need a payday motherf*cker come get it.”
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Can Luke Rockhold achieve this goal of a showdown with Lyoto? Let’s hope this happens for the fans! This would be an incredible showdown between two legends at Karate Combat.
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