In 2008 he traveled to
Dresden as a cornerman of German MMA pioneer Andre Balschmieter for an 8-man tournament. When Balschmieter had to pull out due to injury Rocha elected to take his place. Because of numerous injuries, the tournament was dropped to four fighters, and after a quick submission victory over Johannes Kunz, Rocha found himself competing for the Free Fight Alliance (FFA) middleweight title in only his second professional fight. Rocha won the fight by submission, over the far more experienced Steve Mensing, to become FFA Middleweight Champion and was quickly pegged as a rising star in the German MMA circuit. Rocha was a replacement for
Jon Fitch after Fitch was moved to the
UFC 127 main event to fight
B.J. Penn. Rocha lost the fight via controversial split decision. The dissenting judge scoring the bout for Rocha drew the ire of commentator
Joe Rogan and other members of the press, who cited the 30-27 scoring as "questionable". After his fight with Ellenberger, Rocha hoped to compete at
UFC 134 in Rio pending the results of shoulder and elbow surgery. However, further X-rays showed severe damage in both his right and left elbows, leaving him unable to compete for the rest of 2011. He had hoped to return some time in early 2012, but was unable to schedule a fight. After recovering from surgery he moved to the
US and started training with team
Black House in
Los Angeles,
California. Rocha next faced
Mike Pierce on June 8, 2012, at
UFC on FX 3. As well as moving to Black House to train for the fight, Rocha claimed that this was the first time in his career that he had a full training camp leading up to a fight. Rocha was released from his UFC contract following his loss to Pierce. After his release Rocha was publicly critical of Pierce for his lack of aggression in the fight, and perceived unwillingness to engage with Rocha. He was also critical of the UFC for releasing him, saying "I had good performances and even so I was cut off. I didn’t expect this.” ==Championships and achievements==