Luke Rockhold is a fast rising middleweight prospect who has made steady improvements to his overall MMA game through his first two years in the sport. Rockhold has looked more and more comfortable as he's taken on progressively better competition, and has performed more impressively with each passing bout. Training out of the American Kickboxing Academy, Rockhold is currently signed to the Strikeforce roster where he is one of the company's top prospects in the middleweight division.

An aggressive grappler, Rockhold is most dangerous on the ground where he shows excellent instincts, good ground control, and a solid submission game. Training out of AKA, Rockhold recently earned his brown belt from trainer Dave Camarillo in Guerilla Jiu Jitsu (an aggressive grappling system that integrates the disciplines of judo and BJJ) and displays an overall grappling game that is developing very nicely. Rockhold is a very active and competent BJJ player who immediately looks to attack with submissions and transitions when the fight hits the ground. Given his long flexible limbs Rockhold is very effective fighting off his back, and is particularly good at using his legs to wrap up opponents and control them well on the ground - even from inside his guard. Rockhold is great at transitioning to his opponent's back and has finished the majority of his fights by rear naked choke. Although he is not a wrestler by trade, he has made considerable strides in his takedown defense as his career's progressed (see the difference between his bouts with Theotikos and Taylor). Rockhold has very long legs, a good sprawl and did stuff NJCAA All-American wrestler Jesse Taylor's takedown attempts for the majority of their fight. Rockhold also displays developing ground and pound skills and given his steadily improving wrestling game coupled with his already sound (yet still improving) ground skills and submission abilities, he holds intriguing potential in his grappling game. On his feet Rockhold is a bit of an unorthodox striker who prefers to stay outside his opponents range and likes to use his reach to throw strikes from odd angles. He still looks a little stuff at times on his feet but did drop Cory Devela with a right hand in the opening moments of their fight, and training at AKA his striking should continue to improve under the tutelage of Bob Cook and the deep staff of striking coaches that AKA employs.