It took Derek Brunson a moment to come up with a name to fight next, but now that it’s out there he’s starting to see the path to a title shot.
Brunson picked up arguably the biggest win of his career on Saturday when he knocked out Lyoto Machida in the first round of the UFC Sao Paulo main event, shocking the Brazilian crowd at the Ibirapuera Gymnasium. The outcome left even Brunson himself without much to say in his post-fight interview, but after some prompting from in-cage interviewer (and UFC light heavyweight champion) Daniel Cormier, Brunson decided to set his sights on one of the middleweight division’s top stars: Cormier’s American Kickboxing Academy teammate and former UFC champion Luke Rockhold.