Derek Brunson is looking to make big moves at middleweight.

After middleweight Derek Brunson’s first round KO victory against Lyoto Machida on Saturday, UFC commentator and light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier prompted him to pick his next opponent live at UFC Sao Paulo. It took Brunson a second, but he came up with Cormier’s teammate and former middleweight champion Luke Rockhold.

“He’s a top-level guy,” Brunson said at the post-fight presser. “He’s one or two in the division. I think it would be a great matchup. I think I could put hands on him, touch that chin one time, I can put him down also.”

“I wasn’t planning on calling Rockhold out, I didn’t have anybody in mind, it just kind of came to me at the last minute. And was like OK, that would be a good guy to fight next.”

Brunson has won seven of his last nine fights, with all but one of those victories going past Round 1. A fight between Brunson and Rockhold could be for the number one contender slot. The division champion Michael Bisping will face returning former Welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre at UFC 217 this weekend and Interim hampion Robert Whittaker is waiting in the wings.

“For sure, a win over Rockhold would definitely get me next to the title shot,” Brunson said. “The media sleeps on me a lot, but what I’ve done in the UFC, what I’ve done over my career – I had a controversial decision over Anderson, let’s say I get that win, that takes away a loss. Romero, I was beating him two rounds to zero, I was dominating the whole fight. He was able to catch me with a punch with about a minute left. If I would have just danced around for a minute, I would have got that win. Whittaker, I touched him a lot, he touched me a lot, I rocked him, he rocked me, he was able to get the win.

“So I’ve definitely had a crazy career, but I’m starting to put it together and starting to take my time and know that I can really do some damage if I just slow down just a little bit.”

Today, Derek Brunson tweeted a fight request to Rockhold and former champion Chris Weidman, saying that both have 24 hours to accept. They should be eager to, as a victory over Brunson will likely mean the next shot at the belt. It will certainly mean a spectacular fight for all us fans!

Do you think Rockhold and Weidman will accept the challenge?

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