Max Rohskopf’s coach Robert Drysdale got a lot of flack this past weekend after he ignored his fighter’s pleas for him to call an end the fight inbetween rounds during his bout with Austin Hubbard and instead urged him to keep going.
In the end the fight was waved off anyway as Rohskopf refused to answer the bell for the final round, but the fighter has now spoken out to fully support what Drysdale said and did in the Octagon that night.
“I think what my manager did was 100 percent spot on,” Rohskopf told mmafighting.com. “He’s been in the sport long enough to know when someone has the ability and the talent to do it. I’ve been around guys who have won world titles in multiple sports—kickboxing, boxing, jiu-jitsu, wrestling, MMA—and everyone around me that’s watched me train knows that I have the skills and the ability to do it. I just didn’t show it on Saturday. It’s no one’s fault that I was in that situation except for mine.
“No one should be getting flack for that.”
“I’ve done this my whole life. I’ve self-boycotted myself,” Rohskopf continued. “Even when I was wrestling in high school, I was the best in the state and ended up getting third because I self-boycotted myself. I was one of the best guys in the country in college, was never an All-American when it counted, because I was telling myself that, for whatever reason, I don’t deserve it.
“That’s exactly what I did in my fight with Austin. Sh-t got hard, and I looked at my coach and said, ‘I don’t want to be here anymore.’ Not because I didn’t want to be there, but because I didn’t think I deserved to be there.”
Rohskopf then went on to explain how Drysdale had actually been an incredibly important figure right from the start of his MMA career who has gone above and beyond to help him succeed.
“If the commission wasn’t there, he would’ve got me back I think. I would’ve went out there and we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
“The man f*ckin gave me a place to live when I needed somewhere to live, so I didn’t have to live in my f**kin’ car.
“I actually didn’t want anything to do with MMA until I knocked on his door and was like, ‘Hey, man. I need help and I want you to coach me.’ He’s done nothing but be there for me and do everything he can for me. So for people to come out and say that he was wrong in that situation, there’s literally no debate or discussion about it.
“At the end of the day, I’m the one paying him and that’s what I wanted him to do. That’s what I expected him to do and if I was cornering someone else, that’s what I would do.
“There’s really no discussion about it. Rob did the right thing and he’s always done right by me.”
