He is too old and too full of himself to change. But if he were 25-30, I'd make him go back to 185. The guy is often forced to fight inside the pocket because of his lack of footwork and his build isn't made for that. Fighters with a lanky frame need to be lighter on the feet and dance around. Rockhold tries to fight rangy without footwork, which makes him predictable in his defense (he tends to only pull away from punches in a linear way and gets trapped when it doesn't work). I'd like to see more lateral movement from him, use angles and pivot away from punches. It also sets up takedowns from the side / taking the back when standing. His wrestling isn't high level enough to rely on takedowns from the front.

As much as I dislike the Jackson-Wink academy lately, their expertise seems to be exactly what Rockhold needs, which is making the best use of his long legs and controlling the distance with it. But he'd never do that because of Jones being there.

And I'd like to add that he needs to specialize in the Thai clinch. Not to just look for the takedown, but also knee them and elbow them to make his opponent have more things to worry and making the takedowns easier. Tall fighters like him will always have an advantage in the Thai clinch naturally. If he goes to Thailand and keeps his ego in check, we may see a Khalil Rountree Jr.-like evolution.

nailed it

he's full of himself
needs to be humbled over n over

LOL truuuuuuuuuue

UP

bum

hello conor mcnugets fan! how ya doing?

did you talk to your idol to ask him how much did he give herb for saving his life multiple times?

lol

Does Age reset too? If so I’m going with Randy Coture. He was a beast in his time, so if he could reset his age and make the weight limit, I’d love to see him mix it up with the top 10. Couple extra points into strength/conditioning and he’s good to go!

damn yeah dude
randy wow nostalgia memories of him

good thinking sir!