Luke Rockhold made his triumphant return to the octagon this past weekend against former WSOF middleweight champion David Branch making a statement to the rest of the division in the process. The former UFC middleweight champ had been sidelined with injuries ever since losing the title to Michael Bisping last June, but is now back in the title hunt as he awaits the outcome of Bisping’s title defense against Georges St. Pierre.
David Branch did have some early success against Rockhold, a strategy UFC analyst Kenny Florian believes is now the blueprint to beating Rockhold. Florian gave some insight during his podcast with fellow UFC commentator Jon Anik.
“If you lost that fight to Michael Bisping, you have to be looking at not the fact that you took him lightly, but the technical errors you made in that fight,” said Florian. “He’s done this throughout his career and now people are onto it. Michael Bisping has set a blueprint on how to beat Luke Rockhold and he didn’t address the issue.
“[If I’m Luke Rockhold], I’ve got to keep my hands up. If I am hitting that right hook, I’ve got to pivot or do something to make sure I don’t get hit again because he’s moving straight back and he’s a little bit lazy with that lead right hand which is something I used to do so I know all about that. I think he will address it eventually and it will make him a much better fighter.”
“I think that Rockhold is tremendous on the ground; the way he places his body distribution, his knowledge of position is phenomenal. David Branch is a Renzo Gracie black belt…David Branch is very good and Rockhold made it look pretty easy on the mat and I think a lot of was from Branch being mentally broken but also a great deal of it was the skill on the ground from Luke Rockhold.”
“I think a fight against Yoel Romero. If everything plays out the way it should, let’s say Michael Bisping goes on to defend the belt, he gets that next shot against Whittaker, then [Luke Rockhold] fights someone like Romero. I think that’s something that might make sense.”
