After making his mark in the MMA scene, some may have wondered if Conor McGregor would become a promoter in the sport later in his life. True to some of their predictions, he did become a promoter, or a part-owner, to be exact, but not in MMA. McGregor decided to become a part of the promotion that is quickly rising in popularity — Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship. However, not everybody is a fan of that sport, including former UFC champion Luke Rockhold.

After departing from Dana White‘s promotion in 2023, Luke Rockhold made his way to BKFC for just one fight the same year. Why? Well, in his one and only fight, Rockhold took on fellow former UFC star Mike Perry and got absolutely obliterated, getting his teeth broken and lip sliced. Fans were seriously worried about the 40-year-old after they saw his injury.

As such, Luke Rockhold insinuated that Conor McGregor is investing in the wrong sport because it is not really a fight. While mentioning the health issues that come with fighting in the BKFC, he deemed the fighters on the promotion’s roster as not being smart by fighting with bare-knuckle rules, and Rockhold was quite brutal with his opinion.

“Bare knuckle boxing is not a fight. I realized I wanted out [and] was like, ‘I’m not losing my f—ing teeth without using everything I’ve worked for my whole life. People are f—ing dumb,” Luke Rockhold told MMA Fighting during a recent interview. “That’s a dumba– sport. Metal rings that you just hit and throw you back into the brawl. There’s no way to gauge that distance. And everyone, it’s like who’s willing to lose their face first for f—ing nothing.”

Well, Luke Rockhold may not be a big fan of BKFC, which Conor McGregor deems to be the “alien of combat sports,” but he’s got an idea to make it better. Guess what? The former middleweight champion wants someone to introduce kicking into the bare-knuckle game. Here’s what he had to say.

Luke Rockhold wants bare-knuckle kickboxing

Luke Rockhold is a fighter who wants to use all the techniques he can, which he spent time perfecting in training. When it comes to bare-knuckle boxing, he doesn’t see any use of techniques — at least not the ones that he’s invested his life into. It’s just about catching your opponent and landing a blow to finish the fight. Rockhold believes that the sport will be much more respected and interesting if there is some space for kicking to be allowed, pretty much like kickboxing.

“[Introduce] bare-knuckle kickboxing. Then you’ve got to have some f—ing balls and some technique,” Luke Rockhold added. “It’d be f—ing badass.” Well, it doesn’t seem like Conor McGregor or any of the other execs will be making any changes to BKFC and adding the element of kickboxing in it, since their promotion is doing well and already has stars of their own, like Mike Perry.

Besides, the BKFC has been garnering more eyes than ever before after Conor McGregor became a part-owner of the promotion. Hence, it’s unlikely that we’ll witness any changes to their formula for success. Nevertheless, let us know what you think of Luke Rockhold’s criticism of BKFC in the comments down below.