Luke Rockhold: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Demi Lovato’s Man
Luke who? OK, let’s face it; unless you’re a big fan of Mixed Martial Arts, you might never have even heard of Luke Rockhold. That is, not until he started getting hot and heavy with a majorly sexy pop star like Demi Lovato. But, Luke Rockhold is actually quite famous in his own right. Maybe he can’t sing like an angel the way that Demi can, but he sure can fight!
Demi and Luke appear to be going strong after just starting to date recently.
They’ve been spotted out on the town on a number of very sexy date nights, holding hands, and obviously very taken with each other. However, recent rumors have been surfacing that he has a secret crush on Demi’s number one frenemy, none other than another very hot and super-talented pop star, Taylor Swift. Now, whether the rumors are true or not, the story is that Luke hangs on every Taylor Tweet and has been crushing on her for years now.
He allegedly just loves all of her music and would like to date her if given the opportunity. Guess he hasn’t been watching as all of her romantic relationships seem to crash and burn resulting in a tell-all in her very next hit song. Anyway, rumors aside, Demi and Luke appear to be just a happy young couple getting to know each other. And, along that vein, to help get to know Luke Rockhold better, here are ten things that you probably didn’t know about the popular MMA fighter:
1. Luke Skyler Rockhold
This is his full name and he was born on born October 17, 1984, in Santa Cruz, California. Luke is 6′ 3″ and weighs 185 pounds. His family was always quite athletic. In fact, his brother Matt is a professional surfer. Like his brother, Luke loves surfing as well as skateboarding. Luke and Matt’s father, Steve, was a European professional basketball player. Their mother, Diana, was a devoted tennis player.
2. How He Got Started in Fighting
Luke began judo training at the age of six but quit when he was ten. He joined the school wrestling team when he was in the seventh grade. However, he only stayed with that sport through high school where he then started taking classes in jiu-jitsu. He did do some wrestling in community college but decided that jiu-jitsu should be his full-time pursuit.
3. How He Got Involved in MMA
First, he won some BJJ tournaments and then made the decision to get into mixed martial arts. He was invited by a friend in 2006, to begin training in San Jose at the American Kickboxing Academy (AKA). The combination of Luke’s kicking displays and sheer raw talent immediately impressed Javier Mendez, who was the AKA head coach. He was convinced that Luke had the potential to become a future champion.
4. Strikeforce
When Strikeforce, which was an up-and-coming promotion, called to offer him a fight on the Strikeforce: Young Guns II card, Luke accepted. He is said to have been looking quite impressive in his first fight and he forced his opponent’s submission with his punches. Strikeforce was so Impressed by Luke’s performance that they offered him another upcoming fight on the Strikeforce: Destruction card. And, as they say, the rest is Strikeforce history. He won against Cory Devela and a number of other fighters. In addition, he won the Strikeforce Middleweight Championship by unanimous decision on September 10, 2011, when he beat Ronaldo Souza.
5. Goodbye Strikeforce/Hello UFC
The parent company of Strikeforce closed the organization down in early January 2013. There was a special list released later in the month that named all of the fighters who would be transferring over to the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Luke Rockhold was one of them and he became a UFC competitor. He is now a two-time UFC world champion. In addition, he is ranked #1 in the middleweight category and #3 by the UFC for a pound-for-pound fighter.
6. He’s Also a Model
Luke was signed by Soul Artist Management, which is a New York model management agency. This is also the same agency that discovered and signed “Magic Mike” superstar Channing Tatum as well as Alan Jouban, who is one of Luke’s fellow UFC fighters. Since then, Luke has seen the release of his first spread as a professional model. Now that his modeling career is building momentum, he stated that he might be interested in taking a hiatus from fighting.
7. He Was Kicked Off of a TV Show
Luke is a bit of a bad boy and was ousted from the 2015 reality television show “Millionaire Matchmaker” for making lewd comments to one of the girls during an interview. His appearance on the show has been characterized as gross and disastrous. And, that’s actually an understatement since he asked her a rude and crude question about her oral sex habits. She was not impressed and told him the question was inappropriate. Upon hearing the girl recount his comments, the show’s host called him a UFC dog that needs to be curbed. They’re definitely not asking him back for a repeat performance.
8. Where They Met
Luke and Demi met in Los Angeles at the Unbreakable MMA gym. That’s the gym where they both work out. They are both fans of MMA and really hit it off right away.
9. Just in Time
Some say that Demi’s relationship with Luke came along just at the right time since Demi and her long-time lover, 36-year-old Wilmer Valderrama, had just split up last June following six years together. You may have seen him recently on the #1 television show many years running now, “NCIS” where he is now a regular. Prior to that, he was one of the young stars on the hit comedy “That 70’s Show”.
10. Avid Football Fans
The two were seen recently cuddling up to each other at a Rams game. Insiders have said that they work quite well together. They also said that he’s bringing out her adventurous side even though she didn’t even know that she had one. Apparently, she is head-over-heels in love and they’re very happy together.
