Lefty Luke Circles Right

Luke Rockhold has been on top of the middle-weight devision for a long time, knocking on the door of a title shot. He finally earned his title shot and now it's his time to make an impact on the devision.

Luke has an array of tools to win fights and finish opponents. Ruckhold is a very smart, calculated, lengthy, and strong fighter. He's an athlete who knows how to use his reach and keep his opponents on the outside. Luke plays the range game better than most fighters esepcially at the 185 devision.

One of the techniques he uses to utilize his advantages, and may I add that he uses it very well, is his counter right hook. There's nothing special about a right hook of course, but the way he uses it is extraordinary.

Let's take a look at his footwork and all the elements he applies as he throws that sneaky, powerful right hook.

Rockhold usually fights out of a southpaw stance, where he stands with his right foot forward. He usually stands far away from the opponent and keeps his hands relatively high, protecting his face. Luke drops his right hand just a little tempting the opponent to rush in and try to capitalize on the opening they see, but Luke's footwork is on point, along with the feint back to get more distance from the opponent's fist.

Rockhold lures the opponent in, then leans back to create more distance as he steps back, he then throws his right hook from the hip trying to catch a rushing opponent. The results could be destructive as we can see here in the Philippou fight.

Rockhold took a step back and was ecstatic to see Philippou following him, he stopped and threw the right hook right on the button to drop Philippou.

In this case, Machida rushed a seemingly unprepared Luke Rockhold, but Luke has practiced this technique many times that it has become his natural instinct. Luke didn't have enough time or room to back up, so instead he cut the angle and turned tossing Lyoto off-balance and dropping him. Even when the hook didn't land flush, it was still effective in dropping a huge name opponent like Machida.

In the Devela fight, that same hook was utilized brilliantly. This was in the first few minutes of the fight, Luke was expecting Devela to rush him early and he prepared by standing in the opposite stance. Luke was standing in the regular stance with his left foot forward, which adds so much more power to his signature hook. When rushed, Luke took a step back with his left foot switching stances back to southpaw and pivoting his body while throwing that hook, adding so much more power to it.

The next fight we'll look at is Rockhold vs Bradley; in this fight it took him two attempts to finally land his powerful hook. First he tried it from regular stance, but Bradley ducked under and Luke couldn't catch him. Luke's next attempt was to charge forward with his hands down, knowing that when Bradley is cornered he'll charge forward. Luke sprung forward ready to stop and throw his hook right when Bradley attacks, but Bradley didn't play his game. Luke then switched his stance and put his left foot forward in anticipation of another opportunity, where he can apply the right hook like he did with Devela. It wasn't long before Bradley charged Luke and surely paid for it.

Here's the counter right hook in slowmotion, as Bradley charges in with a somewhat desperate jab left hook, Luke pivots his body around shifting his weight to the left foot then putting all his power into that heavy right hook, with his body weight dropping Bradley.

And that, ladies and gentleman, is how Luke Rockhold uses his sneaky powerful right hook as he backs away from his opponent, keeping a safe distance and, in most cases, ending the fight.

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