Although Luke Rockhold pulled off a super rare stoppage at UFC Fight Night 116, forcing opponent David Branch to tap out to strikes, much of the focus has been on his troubles in the opening round.

Rockhold, the former middleweight champion, struggled with Branch’s pressure boxing early on and got caught with a flurry of punches.

The 32-year-old was dropped and knocked out by Michael Bisping with a left hook and follow-up punches last year at UFC 199, and UFC fighter turned analyst Kenny Florian believes the American Kickboxing Academy product hasn’t fixed the holes in his game.

“If you lost that fight to Michael Bisping, you have to be looking at not the fact that you took him lightly, but the technical errors you made in that fight,” Florian said on the latest edition of the ‘Anik and Florian podcast’, per MMA Fighting’s Jed Meshew. “He’s done this throughout his career and now people are onto it. Michael Bisping has set a blueprint on how to beat Luke Rockhold and he didn’t address the issue.

“[If I’m Rockhold], I’ve got to keep my hands up. If I am hitting that right hook, I’ve got to pivot or do something to make sure I don’t get hit again because he’s moving straight back and he’s a little bit lazy with that lead right hand which is something I used to do so I know all about that. I think he will address it eventually and it will make him a much better fighter.”

Despite any boxing errors, Rockhold more than made up for it when he dragged Branch to the mat and pummeled him with ground-and-pound. Florian, a former three-time UFC title challenger, gave the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt credit for his work on the ground.

“I think that Rockhold is tremendous on the ground; the way he places his body distribution, his knowledge of position is phenomenal,” Florian said. “David Branch is a Renzo Gracie black belt... David Branch is very good and Rockhold made it look pretty easy on the mat and I think a lot of was from Branch being mentally broken but also a great deal of it was the skill on the ground from Luke Rockhold.”

Rockhold has been critical of the upcoming title fight between Bisping and Georges St-Pierre at UFC 217, and is more than willing to step in as a late replacement if GSP pulls out.

Florian, however, believes the more realistic scenario would be for Rockhold to fight former Olympian Yoel Romero, who recently lost to Robert Whittaker in an interim title bout at UFC 213.

“I think a fight against Yoel Romero. If everything plays out the way it should, let’s say Michael Bisping goes on to defend the belt, he gets that next shot against Whittaker, then [Rockhold] fights someone like Romero. I think that’s something that might make sense.”

Rockhold is currently ranked at No. 3 in the official UFC middleweight rankings.