Last night, on the UFC on FOX 15 broadcast, middleweight Luke Rockhold sent a strong message by finishing Lyoto Machida definitively with a rear naked choke in the second round of their main event fight. Now Rockhold already has a lot of supporters, and he is ranked in the top five of the weight class, however the win also goes a long way towards overcoming the loss to Vitor Belfort that came in his UFC debut.
Rockhold came to the UFC as the Strikeforce titleholder, but the fast KO loss in his UFC debut set him back, allowing other Strikeforce talent such as “Jacare” Souza surge ahead of him in the rankings.
Souza had a bit of a letdown, as he fought the co-main event. He was scheduled to face Yoel Romero in another feature fight of two top middleweights, but Romero pulled out of the fight due to injury And Souza faced late replacement Chris Camozzi. Though he made short work of Camozzi, it was an expected result that doesn’t have the elevating effect a win over Romero would have had.
Now Machida is a former light heavyweight champion and though he was unable to get through and beat Chris Weidman in his middleweight title bout, he is still one of the most dangerous men in the weight class. Rockhold hurt Machida with ground and pound and as Round 1 come to a close, Machida was already wobbly and a beaten man.
The two men, Rockhold and Souza, now sit and await the result of the May 23rd title showdown between Vitor Belfort and champion Weidman. Should Weidman win, the matchup with the Brazilian “Jacare” against the All-American might be more appealing. If Belfort wins, the match may go to Rockhold, because the re-match factor makes for an appealing story.
But that depends on whether Weidman would deserve a re-match after losing to Belfort. If the match were to play out in such a way that Weidman gets a re-match that may leave ouza and rockhold on a collision course in another number one contender fight. And the last man to beat Souza, who has an eight fight winning streak? That would be Luke Rockhold.
