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BROTHERLY BATTLES,
SKATEBOARD CRASHES, HELPED PREPARE RISING STAR LUKE ROCKHOLD FOR
CAREER IN STRIKEFORCE
By JOSHUA MOLINA
 Luke
Rockhold has never made it past the first round. For the Santa Cruz,
California native, four minutes and seven seconds is the most time
he has ever needed to put away an opponent. Whether he’s slapping on
a rear naked choke, slipping on an arm bar, or striking someone into
submission, Rockhold has earned his reputation as one of
STRIKEFORCE’s fastest-rising stars.
On Oct. 9 at San Jose, California’s HP Pavilion, Rockhold will face
his toughest challenge yet, when he enters the cage against veteran,
Matt Lindland, an Olympic Silver Medalist in wrestling, who competed
at the 2000 Olympic Games, and who has faced and defeated a
multitude of top competitors in MMA.
“Matt’s really tough,” Rockhold told STRIKEFORCE.com. “People say
he’s slowing down, but I don’t think he is. I am ready for
everything.”
With a record of 7-1, with six submissions and one knockout, the
25-year-old Rockhold, has emerged as one of the sport’s young,
brightest prospects.
With a frequent smile on his face, and a relaxed, down-to-Earth
attitude, Rockhold said one of his secrets is to not worry about
winning, but to just focus on doing the best job he can.
Against Lindland, Rockhold hopes to demonstrate his constantly
improving stand-up game, and show some of his knockout power. At 6
foot, 3 inches tall, Rockhold is an impressive athlete, who knows
how to use his height and long arms to his advantage. Fighting in
STRIKEFORCE’s talent-packed middleweight (185 pounds) division,
Rockhold is usually the bigger guy in the fight.
“I use what God gave me,” he said. “I like to find the holes in my
opponent by using my length and keeping my distance. I try to use
all my assets.”
Among those assets, Rockhold said, is a strength and determination
that he developed as a boy growing up in Santa Cruz. With two older
brothers, Rockhold cheerfully admits that he was on the short end of
many household battles growing up. His brothers liked to pound on
him.
“I took my share of beatings,” says Rockhold, “but you know what, I
learned to enjoy it – and fight back.”
He relished the roughhousing so much that at age six, he started
judo classes. He loved it, and competed for several years.
As he got older, his interest in sports moved to basketball,
baseball, soccer, and then surfing and skateboarding. The
skateboarding also toughened him up.
“I have taken beatings from cement and half-pipes that I don’t think
any human could ever give me,” Rockhold joked.
Rockhold was doing and playing just about everything as a teen, but
never really found one single thing that he wanted to do. In high
school, that all changed.
His parents wanted him to do at least one sport. He picked
wrestling.
With an affection for combat that he learned largely from his
brothers, Rockhold excelled in wrestling. He competed in local
competitions and placed second in the Central Coast Section (CCS).
For a competitor like Rockhold, however, second place wasn’t good
enough. He disputed the judge’s scoring, and was so upset that he
decided to quit wrestling altogether. He threw all his wrestling
gear into the fireplace.
“I was pretty frustrated,” Rockhold recalled.
Rockhold returned to his other passions – skateboarding, surfing,
and “partying,” all popular activities in the beach town of Santa
Cruz. But Rockhold was drawn to something else, something that would
change his life forever, and for the better.
He started training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He quickly found that he
enjoyed it much more than traditional wrestling. He was no longer
limited to just pinning someone. With Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, he
learned the art of submission wrestling.
He traveled to Brazil to study the martial art, competed in the
Pan-American Games and other tournaments.
“I realized how good I was getting at Jiu-Jitsu,” Rockhold said.
At the time he was taking classes at Cabrillo College, considering
whether to be an art major. He also installed solar panels to make
money.
For awhile he worked as a waiter at “The Crow’s Nest,” in Santa
Cruz. He didn’t really have a specific focus. But the Jiu-Jitsu was
calling him.
“I always knew I wanted to use my body in some way to make money in
my occupation,” Rockhold said.
A fan of mixed martial arts, Rockhold started to train at the
American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) in San Jose. Like so many who walk
through the doors of the gym, Rockhold was hooked.
He hasn’t looked back since.
“It changed my life,” Rockhold said.
His promising MMA career has brought other benefits, at least one of
which, Rockhold dreamed about as a child. He’s a video game
character in the upcoming EA Sports MMA video game, where
STRIKEFORCE is featured as a premier league.
“It’s amazing,” Rockhold said, of being able to fight as himself, as
a video game character. “It’s something you dream about as a kid. I
am at a loss for words. It’s unbelievable.”
As a video game character, he made middleweight superstar Jason
“Mayhem” Miller tap out to a guillotine choke during Rockhold’s
first time playing the game recently.
And now that he’s older, there’s another childhood dream he’s
fulfilling. He’s in charge when it comes to the brotherly battles.
His older brothers Matt, a professional surfer and Nate, a preschool
teacher, no longer pick fights with him. They know better.
Rockhold hopes to continue his rapid rise in MMA with a convincing
victory over Lindland. One day soon, he said, he’d like to fight for
the STRIKEFORCE middleweight championship.
“I know I am going to get there one day,” Rockhold said. “It’s just
a matter for time. I see myself as being the best one day.”
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