Biography
Fans of mixed martial arts spreading in the United States of America in the 90s of the 20th century, the name of Luche Rokhold, twice with the title of Strikeforce, twice. However, few people know that the fighter, which became the last owner of the Golden Belt UFC in middleweight, in addition to the Giu-Jitsu and kickboxing classes, is fond of other sports and appears on the world's high fashion weeks as a new face of POLO Ralph Lauren.Childhood and youth
The American fighter named Luke Skyler Rockhold was born on October 17, 1984 on the West Coast of California, in the administrative center of Santa Cruz. Since childhood, the boy's biography was associated with sports, as the Irish father was a professional European basketball player, and the mother, masterfully owned by the ball and a racket, constantly took him to the tennis court.
Unlike the parents and brother, which passed the surfing, Luke chose a tighter approach to the formation of his own body and at the 6th age, seriously engaged in Brazilian struggle. In the school section, he studied the tricks of judo and Jiu-Jitsu and thanks to this received a place in the university team of free wrestlers.
True, after participating in a number of fights, Rokhold decided that he was closer to the art associated with the throws, so he left the wrestling and continued his workouts aimed at suffering intake and pain captures with the help of legs. On the advice of friends, the guy whose height reached 191 cm, and the weight was on the verge of 82 kg, entered the American Academy of Kickboxing and continued the path to the achievements and ripe championship.
Martial arts
In the first professional battle, held within the tournament called Melee On The Mountain, Rockhold fully dominated the opponent and after impressive work feet for victory applied a pain.After the second battle, completed by technical knockout, the hatch was proposed to perform in mixed martial arts and participate in the battle of Young Guns II organized by the American StrikeForce kickboxing association. Having won due to the squall of powerful blows on Torso, the opponent did not take anything, the young fighter caused the sympathy of the leadership and managers and received an invitation to another fight.
Then, appearing in additional battles held on Strikeforce Challengers, Luke applied a branded suffocating admission against Jesse Taylor, and after some time, after a decisive strike, knee was not resistant to Paul Bradley.
These victories made a young American Character Video Games EA Sports MMA and allowed to hope for a speech against more famous rivals. True, due to the injury, the shoulder received at the training session, the athlete was forced to postpone the fight with the wrestler and the showman Mattheld Lindland and add from the meeting with the winner of Extreme Challenge Tim Kennedy, who had to take place at the StrikeForce 32 tournament.
Only after a 18-month interruption that needed to restore, Luke was able to fight for the championship title and in September 2011 the unanimous decision took away the belt from Brazilian Ronaldo Souza, the former King of Ring Strikeforce, and did not give him in the battles of Rockhold VS. Jardine and Rockhold VS. Kennedy.
When StrikeForce was closed, Rockhold was automatically translated into UFC. His debut in the new organization has become the main event of the evening UFC on FX 8. In the fight with the titled Wist Beffort, Luke suffered an offensive defeat, getting a knockout after hitting the reversal.
In 2014, Rockhold's fight with Costas Philippe was held on the UFC Fight Night 35 competitions. After a convincing victory, the American received a cash prize of $ 50 thousand and the nomination "Best Knockout of the Evenings".
After that, in the main battle of the next UFC-evening, Rokhold came up with the British Michael Bisping and received a prize for an outstanding performance, having conducted a series of blows to the head, and then using a suffocating reception.
A year later, Luke struggled with one former champion of mixed martial arts - Machida's semi-heavyweight Lioto. The Americans again recognized the best in the category "Evening Speech", and he received the right to meet with the acting owner of the UFC belt.
Thoroughly prepared for the upcoming battle with Chris Viderman, successfully speaking in different categories, Rokhold was able to do anything with his opponent, but, by gathering, he managed to beat him to the ground and rewarded with the most powerful blows and legs. The victory, awarded by the applicant technical knockout, presented the American UFC gold belt in the middleweight, but in June 2016 he gave him to Michael Bisping.
In 2018, the defeated hatch had to be content with the battle for the title of a temporary champion, but he lost to the knockout of Yoely Romero, the former silver medalist of the Olympiad in Competitions in freestyle wrestling.
Personal life
Watching the development of Rockhold sports career, journalists almost did not pay attention to his personal life. But in the mid-2010, the photo of the fighter in the long-haired beauty fell in Instagram of the American edition TMZ.
By this time, Luke officially admitted that for several months his girl is actress and singer Demi Lovato. No one knows how serious these relationships were, but after Luke became a model and signed a contract with Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation, the couple broke up.
However, the former UFC champion in the middle weight was not long stayed alone and, according to unverified rumors, in 2018 began to meet with a partner shooting - a mannequin Romi Streak.
Luke Rokhold now
In early 2019, Rokhold said he plans to perform heavyweight and participate in the battle with Jan Blahovich, a multiple winner of the UFC fights.Now all the fans of mixed martial arts revise the video of the battle, held on the night from July 6 to July 7 in Las Vegas, where the hatch from the first minutes could not cope with the press of the Pole and lost to the struggle by knockout fixed by the judges after 7.5 minutes.
Awards and achievements
- 2011 - Strikeforce champion in middleweight
- 2012 - Strikeforce champion in middleweight (twice defended the title)
- 2014 - the best knockout of the evening "UFC Fight Night: Rockhold VS. Philippou »
- 2014 - Evening performance "UFC Fight Night: Rockold VS. BISPING »
- 2015 - Evening performance "UFC on Fox: Machida VS. Rockhold »
- 2015 - UFC champion in middleweight
- 2015 - the best evening of the evening "UFC 194"