Luke Rockhold captured the UFC middleweight championship Dec. 12 at UFC 194 by smashing then-champion Chris Weidman via fourth-round TKO.

The finish was definitive. Each punch and elbow during the fight-ending sequence sent a message, declaring Rockhold the undisputed 185-pound king.

To hear Rockhold tell it, though, that message may not have reached its intended recipient, and an immediate rematch could await in his near future.

"All signs point to Weidman [for my first title defense]," Rockhold told Ariel Helwani on Monday's edition of The MMA Hour.

To Rockhold, Weidman's insistence on a mulligan is questionable given the nature of their first encounter.

"I don’t think it’s a great move. I don’t know what he [Weidman] sees," Rockhold said. "This is not god’s will. This is not a blessing in disguise. It’s the simple fact that I’m better than him. I’ll beat him again and I’m going to put an exclamation mark on it next time.

"I don’t know where his head’s at. He’s very religious and he seems to think everything happens for a reason. I guess it’s made him a better man, but, you know, he’s going to come into that cage one more time with me, and I’m going to have to beat him down again."

After the fight, it was revealed that Rockhold battled a staph infection in the two weeks leading up to his UFC 194 tilt against Weidman. However, Rockhold revealed on The MMA Hour that the injuries didn't end there. As a result, the American Kickboxing Academy product feels he did not perform at his best Dec. 12, and a second fight would only be worse for the New Yorker.





" It [the camp] was pretty bad," Rockhold said. "I sprained my neck quite a ways out, like right at the attachment point. I couldn’t really spar or do anything for about three weeks. I started sparring about three weeks out from this fight. And then I got the infection and busted my knee. It’s the fight life. This is what we signed up for. Some don’t always go according to plan, but in the end, as long as you get the ‘W,’ it’s all good.





"It [the Weidman camp] was probably my worst. The [Lyoto] Machida camp was second worst. It is what it is. I can’t complain. Both fights worked pretty well for me. It’s not broke, so I ain’t going to try to fix it."





While Rockhold seems to believe a rematch with Weidman is on deck, he acknowledges that other options are on the table for his first middleweight title defense.





There's the winner of Feb. 27's UFC Fight Night 83 main event between Anderson Silva and Michael Bisping Vitor Belfort , the last man to defeat Rockhold, is still out there, too. In the end, it doesn't much bother the California native. He's ready. He's prepared. And he's confident regardless of who shows up opposite him on fight night.





" I’m ready to fight. I’m ready to get paid," Rockhold said. "That’s all that matters to me. Obviously, the Anderson Silva fight is very appealing. The Vitor fight I like, but it doesn’t seem like I’m going to get that right at the moment, so maybe I just have to fight Weidman and just finish that one off for good and move on from there."





This, however, doesn't mean Rockhold never had a preference. After gaining the belt, he made it clear he wanted to rematch Belfort, a fight that ultimately never materialized.





" Definitely, yeah, I pushed for it [the fight with Belfort]," Rockhold said. "I asked for him, and they just, they’re not ready to give him another title shot. Yeah, I don’t really care [whether Belfort technically deserved the shot]. I just, I’m over it at this point. If he can win a fight, if he can beat [Ronaldo] 'Jacare' [Souza], then I’d love to do it again.





"Obviously, Jacare, we’ve had a good fight in the past too. I don’t [think he’ll beat Jacare]. He’s got a puncher’s chance, but who knows what Vitor we’re going to see?"





Should the fight with Weidman not come to light, Rockhold admits one other option would be a treat for him, and that's a rematch with Bisping, a fighter who he previously defeated via guillotine choke at UFC Fight Night 55.





" It’d [a rematch with Bisping would] be a fun one to hype up, I’m not going to lie," Rockhold said.