Michael Bisping to Luke Rockhold: ‘Stick to modeling’

Don’t get too excited about the idea of Luke Rockhold vs. Michael Bisping 3 just yet.

On Monday’s episode of “The MMA Hour,” Rockhold said the trilogy fight was “in discussion.” Rockhold also hinted that the long-time rivals could settle their feud at UFC 226 on July 7 in Las Vegas at light heavyweight.

However, when contacted by MMAFighting.com, Bisping put the brakes on that talk.

“I can categorically on the record state that I have not been offered a fight with (Rockhold) on July 7,” Bisping said. “He shouldn’t be so keen to get knocked out again anyway. Stick to modeling. Judging by his last three fights, MMA certainly doesn’t appear his thing anymore.”

The Rockhold-Bisping saga dates back almost four years. Rockhold submitted Bisping in November 2014, but Bisping followed that up with one of the greatest upsets in MMA history when he knocked out Rockhold to become the middleweight champion at UFC 199.

Bisping lost the belt to Georges St-Pierre at UFC 217 late last year and then lost three weeks later to Kelvin Gastelum. Since then, “The Count” has openly talked about fighting one more time but for various reasons that retirement hasn’t been made just yet.

Rockhold most recently lost an interim middleweight title fight against Yoel Romero last month. On Monday’s show he said he was leaning towards a permanent move to light heavyweight because the weight cuts were getting to be too tough.

“Why don’t we do this thing in style?” Rockhold said on the show. “Let’s sign on the bottom line. … I know this is a fight the UFC is pursuing. So, we’ll see. We’ll see if Bisping can back up his mouth once again.”

As for Rockhold’s budding modeling career, he was recently named the face of Polo Ralph Lauren’s Polo Blue fragrance line.