Does Prime Rockhold beat Strickland?

[Theynevergoeasy]

I’m talking about fit, cardio, 31 year old prime peak of masculinity Luke Rockhold that fought Weidman. If he were to go toe to toe with Strickland, how would it end up? Luke with kicks from the outside and a sub from a scramble or Strickland find the infamous Rockhold chin?

discuss

 

[pankrat]

Rockhold via ground game

 

[doggo]

I’m talking about fit, cardio, 31 year old prime peak of masculinity Luke Rockhold that fought Weidman. If he were to go toe to toe with Strickland, how would it end up? Luke with kicks from the outside and a sub from a scramble or Strickland find the infamous Rockhold chin?

discuss

That Luke still gassed in a round didn't he?

 

[KOPPE]

If Usmans tda and cardio abuse made him go turtle mode Imagine what a prime Rockhold could do.

 

[Flower2dPeople]

Strikeforce Luke can compete with Anderson in that time period, imo. Strickland will be a cakewalk as Luke can kick/fight forward unlike Izzy.

 

[chinarice]

Luke's shit-tier boxing defense gets him finished. Sean has very good hands. Terrible matchup for Luke.

Strickland by TKO. Easy win.

 

[Ozze]

Rockhold wins this one.

 

[Question]

He's gotta a pretty solid chance IMO.
Rockhold was a beast back then, but Sean's got the style to crack through those defensive holes for sure.

Overall Strickland is solid, but we really haven't seen much of his wrestling and ground game tested at middleweight. It's really difficult to give a fair assessment outside of training stories and the Usman bout which was years ago in his welterweight days.

 

[Travis Alexander]

Strikeforce Luke picks him apart from start to finish.

 

[RonDante]

Rockholds downfall made me so sad, I was team rockhold all the way

 

[loisestrad]

Depends. Are we talking prime Strickland who tooled Izzy, or ar we talking the Strickland who got ko'ed by Alex way before Strickland hit his prime?

 

[Harlekin]

If Usmans tda and cardio abuse made him go turtle mode Imagine what a prime Rockhold could do.

- Usman has 3 times the cardio Rockhold had.
- Usman had good takedowns, Rockhold doesn't.
1 Machida slipped
2 Weidman failed with his roundhouse kick.
3 Bisping got headbutted and headkicked.
- Wasn't prime Strickland
- Rockhold gassed in the 2nd against Weidman

Strickland wins via cardio and finds that chin on a tired Rockhold. 8/10
Rockhold gets it on the ground via something random 2/10

 

[chinarice]

Strikeforce Luke can compete with Anderson in that time period, imo. Strickland will be a cakewalk as Luke can kick/fight forward unlike Izzy.

Rockhold would get destroyed by Silva. His chin is garbage and his defense is shit. Silva highlight reels him. Strickland had a better chance against prime Silva than Luke does.

 

[Givvee]

Prime Rockhold? He beats Sean easily.

 

[linvillegorge]

Yeah, probably but when you have a porcelain chin and no defense nothing is a sure thing.

 

[dalegordon]

Lol of course, Strickland has had one outstanding performance, he is a lower top ten fighter if we are really honest. Time will tell though, maybe I'm wrong. I take nothing away from him though, he is the champ and how could you not like the guy

 

[Bowel-forged Stool]

Luke rockhold via question mark kick is probably what luke would say

 

[Paul E Gensinger]

I don't think we know exactly how good Strickland is. He really put it together his last two fights.
Did he really move up to the next level, or was the Izzy fight a little flukish?
I know its not a perfect comparison, but remember Serra and the Vixen over Nunes.

 

[Black Blood]

If Rockhold gets on top of him on the ground he smashes him easy.

Problem is... Luke has always had shitty takedowns and poor boxing defense. 50/50 fight for me.

 

[15089371]

I think that's a really good fight, I think people are still underestimating Strickland. Luke has a solid groundgame but I do believe anyone who thinks he will just go through Sean on the ground is mistaken, dude never ever lost to submission and I think only Usman is the only guy that truly got the better of him there. Sean is very hard to finish and has massive great cardio, so I could see Sean with the late finish too. It's really too bad the fight fell out.