Luke Rockhold defends AKA training methods despite injuries

Over the last several years, the American Kickboxing Academy has caught quite a bit of criticism for their fighter’s pulling out of fights due to injuries, most specifically Cain Velasquez and Khabib Nurmagomedov.

In addition, Daniel Cormier was forced to withdraw from his first UFC fight when he injured his leg prior to his UFC 198 showdown with Jon Jones earlier this month.

During the UFC 199 media day, Luke Rockhold defended AKA for their training regimen, explaining that all camps have injuries, however not all are as highly publicized due to the fact that not all camps have such elite level fighters.

MMAFighting has the transcription:

“People want to talk about our camp,” Rockhold said. “You guys, we have the top camp in the world. We have all the best guys. So if anybody gets hurt, people get hurt in every other situation, but they’re not all from one big camp, like ours.”

“DC’s never missed a fight,” Rockhold said. “I’ve barely ever missed a fight. When have I ever had to pull out of a fight? Whether I’m injured or not I still make the fight and I’m still winning, and doing what I have to do.”

“Cain gets some injuries, but people are fighting,” Rockhold said. “We just come from the top camp in the world with a lot of top names and there’s a lot of focus. Any time anyone gets hurt, people want to point the finger. But the thing is, we have the best camp in the world and there’s a reason why that’s happening.

“Injuries happen, we have a high level of competition at the gym,” Rockhold continued. “But we’re family and people aren’t trying to hurt each other. From time to time, things happen. I don’t believe we have a big problem with injuries. I know myself, I know DC, I know a lot of these guys and a couple injuries plague you, but the rest of us have been pretty healthy.”