Luke Rockhold named face of Ralph Lauren Polo Blue

Ralph Lauren has announced that former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold has been named as the face of its iconic fragrance Polo Blue, due out this month.

Former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold might not be having much luck in the Octagon, but his modeling career sure seems to be taking off. Ralph Lauren just announced that he’d be the new face of its signature fragrance, Polo Blue.

Rockhold will be starring alongside fellow model Romee Strijd for this ad campaign.

This isn’t the first modeling gig for Rockhold, as he was also featured on the cover of At Large magazine and appeared in an episode of Bravo’s hit show Millionaire Matchmaker.

“It wasn’t on my radar,” Rockhold told People! Magazine (who also has extra exclusive photos) “But I’m so happy to be here and to be with them and I couldn’t imagine it being a better fit. At the beginning it was hard to fathom. But now, it feels so right.”

He’s not the first UFC fighter to dabble in modeling, Alan Jouban has been featured in many ads, including a prestigious series of Versace ads — one alongside supermodel Gigi Hadid.

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Rockhold said that balancing his training schedule and modeling gigs can be tough, but he wouldn’t change it.

“I can train all day but to come into that world and do this five-day shoot from dusk to dawn was a bit draining,” he said. “But I’m a competitive person. I never turn down a challenge. And to see it come to life, I know all the work was worthwhile.”

Rockhold is coming off a devastating loss to Yoel Romero at UFC 221. That bout was meant to put Rockhold back to into the position to challenge for another shot at obtaining the middleweight belt.