Dana White has gone on record that he thinks both Luke Rockhold and Holly Holm should seriously consider retiring after their losses at UFC 239 on Saturday night.
A former middleweight champion, Rockhold’s move up to light-heavyweight for the first time at the event proved to be somewhat of a disaster after Jan Blachowicz proceeded to knock him out with punches in the second round.
That’s Rockhold’s second KO loss in a row and third in his last four fights, leading White to the conclusion that it’s time for him to think about hanging his gloves up for good.
“I think Luke Rockhold should talk about hanging it up,” White told reporters at the UFC 239 post-fight press conference. “He broke his jaw tonight. So that’s the second broken jaw. He’s been knocked out viciously a few times here. Shin is all banged up. He had to skin graph and all kinds of stuff.
“He’s had a good career. He’s been a great fighter. I’d like to see him hang it up.”
last year Rockhold was signed up by Ralph Lauren as a model and White has encouraged him to focus on that instead of fighting now.
“He’s got another career that he’s actually doing well at,” White said. “Everybody’s a f—king model, ‘I’m a model, I’m a model’ — that guy’s actually really modeling for Ralph Lauren. So good for him.”
Meanwhile, White also suggested that it might be time for 37-year-old former bantamweight champion Holly Holm to also call time on her career after being TKO’d with a head kick by Amanda Nunes.
“Listen, I don’t want to start going retirement crazy in here,” White said of Holm. “You know, she has had an amazing career. She is one of the sweetest human beings you can ever meet. And if you follow her on Instagram, she trains like a beast. She’s almost 40-years-old and she’s in ridiculous shape. The things that this woman can do physically with like the rings, gymnastics and all that stuff is phenomenal.”
”She’s an incredible athlete, she’s an incredible human being. I think that she needs to take a look at, you know, what’s next for her and what she thinks – and I’m just saying that because I care about her. I care about her as a person. She’s amazing, so, I don’t know. Something we should probably talk about.”
