Ex-UFC champ Luke Rockhold fires back at Dana White: 'Think before you run your mouth'

UFC President Dana White and former middleweight champion Luke Rockhold are officially beefing.

After White called out Rockhold for allegedly demanding a title shot, Rockhold replied today on Twitter, telling the UFC boss, “Think before you run your mouth.”

“Tell me how did (Georges St-Pierre) earn a middleweight title shot?” Rockhold added.

The former champ was responding to an initial salvo from White, who recently accused him of making unreasonable demands. Following this past Saturday’s UFC 211, White said, “You’ve got Rockhold right now screaming, ‘I deserve this.’ You just got knocked out in the first round. You don’t deserve anything. You’ve got to come back and earn it.”

That came after an an interview with “The MMA Hour” in which Rockhold vented this past week about the middleweight title picture, suggesting he wouldn’t step back into the octagon unless it was for a title, interim or otherwise, and suggesting fighters band together to take a stand against entertainment-first matchmaking.

Never one to back down from a verbal fight, White said Rockhold hasn’t proved himself enough to get a title shot, citing UFC welterweight Demian Maia as an example of someone deserving.

“The guy just got knocked out in the first round by Michael Bisping, and he thinks he deserves this and he deserves that,” White said of Rockhold. “You earn it. You want to come back and you want to fight for the title? Get back in here and earn it.”

Rockhold denied demanding an opportunity to win gold.

“I never said I deserved a title shot,” he tweeted today. “I said we (middleweights) deserve clarity. We deserve something to fight for.”

Rockhold (15-3 MMA, 5-2 UFC) previously has said the promotion is on a “slippery slope” with its current promotional strategy, criticizing an immediate middleweight title shot granted to ex-welterweight champion St-Pierre.

The St-Pierre vs. Bisping fight is now off because St-Pierre (25-2 MMA, 19-2 UFC) won’t be ready to compete until November. Bisping (30-7 MMA, 20-7 UFC) is expected to defend his title against No. 1 contender Yoel Romero (12-1 MMA, 8-0 UFC).

Rockhold hasn’t fought since the loss of his title to Bisping 11 months ago at UFC 199. A rematch with Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza for UFC Fight Night 101 was called off when he suffered a knee injury. Rockhold subsequently offered to fight Anderson Silva at UFC 212, and then Robert Whittaker at UFC 213, but the promotion decided against both.

The way things are headed, Rockhold might need to mend fences with White before he gets back to business.

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