Luke Rockhold doesn’t have a lot of respect for Sean Strickland.

This past Saturday, Strickland fell short in his bid to reclaim the UFC middleweight title, losing a wide unanimous decision to Dricus du Plessis in their rematch at UFC 312. Strickland enjoyed almost none of the success he had in his first bout with du Plessis and even suffered a bad nose break in the fourth round. That stood in stark contrast to Strickland’s promises beforehand to “fight to the f*cking death.” And Rockhold has no patience for it.

“If someone breaks your nose, you’ve got to fight like a f*cking man and sack up,” Rockhold told Ariel Helwani. “We all watched the fight, and we all heard the guy talk about, ‘To the death, Dutchman! To the death!’ This motherf*cker talks such a big game and then he bitches out and basically quits in the fight after he breaks his nose. What are you worried about? You have a title fight. A world title is on the line. That’s all you want, that’s all you dreamed of, and you’re more worried about fixing your f*cking nose than f*cking winning and biting down on your mouthpiece and doing what you’ve got to do. It shows your true character. That’s what the cage is all about. ...

“When has he ever f*cking put his ass on the line and f*cking bit down and really went for it through the whole process of a fight, not just the last 10 seconds of a round? The guy is nonstop — he’s not finishing any big fights, I’ll tell you that. Look at him out there, talking. Just talking ...

“I’m just tired of fake people. You just see everything that he presents himself as, which he is not. It’s pretty simple.”

Rockhold is not the only fighter to take issue with Strickland’s performance. Several MMA luminaries have let the former middleweight champion have it following UFC 312, and as a man who has had to take his own lumps in this manner, Rockhold firmly believes this backlash is warranted.

“You’ve got to show up and lay claim to your words,” Rockhold said. “If you don’t you eat a lot of shit. Trust me, I’ve got my fair share of shit. We all say things. Sometimes, it doesn’t work out the best way possible, but you assume — certain things you say, you’ve got to try to do. And then there’s other versions that don’t come so true.”

Rockhold has a bit of personal history with Strickland, as the two crossed paths a few times at the RVCA gym several years ago. Rockhold recounted how he never much cared for Strickland but did allow that he is an elite fighter. Even still, Rockhold believes we’ve seen the last of Strickland as a title contender.

“Sean will never make it back to anything of substance,” Rockhold said. “He proved it. He just wants to exist. He wants to exist at the top and be part of the show. That’s all he wants to do, from what I see.”