During a recent interview on MMA Junkie Radio, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight champion Luke Rockhold declared that he had no respect for current Heavyweight kingpin Fabricio Werdum as a person, thanks to a beef the two share stemming back from their Strikeforce days.

He also boldly claimed he can take out the 265-pound champion rather easy.

"We have an old Strikeforce beef. Fabricio didn't really have respect for people at the time, I think it was in St. Louis. I'm not going to get into it, throw him under the bus too bad, bad he pretty much was being a piece of shit that night and I demanded some respect. I was a young Strikeforce challenger at the time. And he was like, 'Who the fuck are you?' And he treated me like a piece of shit. He was just being a dick and I stood up or myself and he tried to act like I was being the bad guy. And ever since, he just kind of said some shit and I don't rally have respect for the guy. I respect him as a fighter, he's tough and he lays it out there. He's earned respect in that manner, but outside of that, meh. I'd fight him in a heartbeat. I think I'd beat him, too. Easy."

Of course, "Vai Cavalo" wasn't going to take the statements lying down, as he offered up his rebuttal to Combate (via Bloody Elbow).

As Werdum sees it, he isn't too sure what the beef is, but a fight between them will never happen because he isn't in the business of fighting "wimps."

"Everyone in the fight business knows I'm not arrogant at all. He is the one who is quite arrogant, actually. He said he would fight me, huh? The problem is that I only fight men, not wimps. He should ask Velasquez if he has any chance against me. I don't know what happened, but honestly, I never really cared for Rockhold. I don't like people who are full of themselves. If you're the man, you don't have to show it to other people. He has his head up his ass. I've never really talked to him. When I fought Velasquez, he told me some sh*t before the fight. After I won, I passed by him and asked him ‘Where's the fake belt now?' and all he said was 'good job.'"

One of the most unusual beefs in mixed martial arts (MMA) indeed.

Nevertheless, while a fight between the two talented men will never happen, at least Rockhold can hope his American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) teammate, Cain Velasquez, can sneak in a few punches on his behalf when he faces Fabricio in the main event of UFC 196 on Feb. 6, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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