Khamzat Chimaev declined fight against Luke Rockhold

Former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold has stated that UFC rising star Khamzat Chimaev was offered a fight, but the Chechen native declined to fight him.

Former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold after being out of the competition for more than two years now has decided to step back into the octagon. He was once regarded as one of the best fighters in the middleweight division and he also held the championship belt. But after hitting a downfall in his career we haven’t seen much activity from him and neither have the fans got to see the old championship-calibre Rockhold.

Recently in an interview, Luke said that he wants to fight this year but is having a difficult time getting an opponent from the middleweight division as all the guys at the top of the middleweight rankings are declining the offer to fight him.

“It’s really about fighting someone’s who’s going to fight,” Rockhold told Mike Swick on the “Real Quick with Mike Swick” podcast. “I need to fight a top 10 guy who’s ready to sack up and ready to fight. There are already multiple people in the top 10 making excuses why they don’t want to fight me. Who the f***k are you to turn down a fight? Where’s your entitlement and what you think you have?

“I’m not just going to fight anybody,” Rockhold said. “It’s like I want something that gets me excited, gets the fans excited, and has a little momentum – something that makes somewhat of sense. So I want to come back in and I want to do this thing right.

Luke Rockhold says Khamzat Chimaev denied the fight

Luke Rockhold tells me he was offered a main event vs. Khamzat Chimaev on Aug. 28. He said he accepted but just got word Chimaev declined because he’s staying at 170. He also accepted a 3-rounder vs Chimaev on Aug. 7.

“All respect but I thought he would fight anyone,” he said.

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) June 23, 2021

“Luke Rockhold tells me he was offered a main event vs. Khamzat Chimaev on Aug. 28. He said he accepted but just got word Chimaev declined because he’s staying at 170. He also accepted a 3-rounder vs Chimaev on Aug. 7.”

“All respect but I thought he would fight anyone,” he said

To be clear: The Chimaev-Rockhold fight would have been at 185, obviously.

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) June 23, 2021

“Rockhold is hoping to fighting by the end of the summer, he said. Wants a top-ranked 185er.”

“To be clear: The Chimaev-Rockhold fight would have been at 185, obviously.”

According to Ariel Helwani, Luke has himself given him this inside information. Khamzat was the biggest breakout star of 2020. The UFC’s pandemic season brought out many UFC fighters and one of them was Khamzat Chimaev. By the end of 2020, Khamzat was sidelined due to COVID-19 health complications. Since that he has been scheduled to compete multiple times against Leon Edwards but the fight never made through. Now another fight was offered to Chimaev but he seems to be less interested now. The reason for him not accepting the fights is unclear at the moment but the fans hope it’s not because of his health issues because of which he was also planning on retiring.

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