Rockhold says 'slow' Weidman will only be tough for a round or two
Luke Rockhold wants to usher in a new age in the UFC's middleweight division.
Set to vie for the title against long-time champion Chris Weidman at UFC 194 on Dec. 12, Rockhold says he isn't feeling any pressure heading into a bout he figures he'll dominate.
"I don't feel nothing," Rockhold told Submission Radio, according to MMAFighting.com's David St. Martin. "I feel myself going in there and doing my job. That's what I feel. People want to see this as a close fight? I don't see it. I think Chris is going to be tough ... for a round. Maybe two. I'm going to run away with this fight. I'm going to take the belt home. Another belt to AKA (American Kickboxing Academy).
"Chris is just too slow. He's too slow. He's slow. That's all I've got to say. He's slow, slow, slow."
According to Rockhold, Weidman wrested the middleweight throne from Anderson Silva at a weak point in the division's history, and the new blood hunting and thirsting for the title will be too much for the champion to handle.
"I think he's a very tough guy," Rockhold said. "I think he's got this division at the right time, but it's a new age. There's a new crop of guys coming up that are on a different level than anyone he's ever faced. I'm leading the way. He's in trouble in a lot of ways. I think our Lyoto Machida fights tell a very different story when we fought the same guy. The Vitor Belfort fight, we shouldn't even talk about it. It's not even in the same realm. We all know what the difference was, there. Anderson Silva is Anderson so who knows how those fights went. I'm more focused on current history."
With training partners like former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez and current UFC light heavyweight kingpin Daniel Cormier, Weidman isn't going to unleash anything inside the cage that Rockhold hasn't seen before.
"I'm not scared of Weidman," said Rockhold. "He's fighting all of these guy that are scared of his wrestling and letting him dictate the pace of the fight. I dictate the pace of my fights. No one else. He's not going to bring anything that I'm not used to. I know he's good on the feet and on the ground but it's the same thing as Machida on the ground.
"I have a different level of speed and athleticism and he's not going to be able to keep up with me. He can't keep up, whether we're on the ground or on the feet, and that's where I plan on exposing every weakness he has."