Derek Brunson believes he can finish former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight title holder Luke Rockhold.
Last night (Oct. 28), Brunson knocked out the returning Lyoto Machida in enemy territory. The bout was over in the opening round. It’s the 10th knockout victory in Brunson’s professional mixed martial arts career.
During the post-fight press conference, Brunson had his sights set on Rockhold (via MMAFighting.com):
“He’s a top-level guy. He’s one or two in the division. I think it would be a great match-up. I think I could put hands on him, touch that chin one time, I can put him down also.”
He went on to say that a win over Rockhold would put him in title contention.
“For sure, a win over Rockhold would definitely get me next to the title shot. The media sleeps on me a lot, but what I’ve done in the UFC, what I’ve done over my career – I had a controversial decision over Anderson, let’s say I get that win, that takes away a loss. Romero, I was beating him two rounds to zero, I was dominating the whole fight. He was able to catch me with a punch with about a minute left. If I would have just danced around for a minute, I would have got that win. Whittaker, I touched him a lot, he touched me a lot, I rocked him, he rocked me, he was able to get the win.”
