Rockhold: My fights in Strikeforce were tougher than any in UFC

Specialists are often characterized as a secret weapon for an upcoming challenge. There is going to be a reason why Luke sucks and it sucks for him that they are going to put him down like that, but that's the way it's going to be.

"I think it's a bit of insecurity when people go out and seek the ideal training partner", he told MMAjunkie during a recent media luncheon.

He's listened as revisionists find a way to discount his decision win over Lyoto Machida and detract from his dominant victory over Vitor Belfort in May, and heading into Saturday's championship showdown with Luke Rockhold, Weidman is expecting to hear more of the same when he walks out of the cage with the belt still wrapped around his waist.

Rockhold is lengthy striker that has good takedown defense. At 188 in Mexico City, Rockhold relentlessly offered his opinion on Fabricio Werdum, who would beat Rockhold's teammate Cain Velasquez to claim the heavyweight crown.

"He trains with a bunch of jabronis", Rockhold said.

Weidman enters the UFC 194 co-main event with an unblemished record - 13 wins, no defeats - with nine of those victories coming on the biggest stage in the sport. But as it turns out, the middleweight champ already works with a former kickboxing champion, Stephen Thompson.

He believes an inability to bring Weidman down results in the Long Islander fighting foolishly.

"I'm human just like everybody else and I understand that anything can happen", he said.

"Other professionals, they get down in the dumps and maybe they don't go to strength and conditioning". "I gotta beat the [expletive] out of this guy". But Weidman can't see Rockhold (14-2) posing as many problems as his predecessors. Although he didn't specifically mention Thompson, he referred to a sparring partner of the champ's as "some karate kid". "I have a great fan base, but no matter what, there are still going to be doubters".

On his plan for Weidman: "I'm going to kick like a man. I'm going to punch like a man, and I'm not going to run away from him". The former Strikeforce champion also heads to Las Vegas along with his head coach Javier Mendez.

"And here we are", Carvajal chimed in.

While he hasn't been shy about saying he's definitely going to beat Weidman, that's about as far as the trash talk has gone.