  The recent discovery of materials featuring strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling
(RSOC) and strong electronic correlation raises questions about the interplay
of Mott and Rashba physics. In this work, we employ cluster perturbation theory
to investigate the spectral properties of the two-dimensional Hubbard model in
the presence of a significant or large RSOC. We show that RSOC strongly favors
metallic phases and competes with Mott localization, leading to an
unconventional scenario for the Mott transition which is no longer controlled
by the ratio between the Hubbard $U$ and an effective bandwidth. The results
show a strong sensitivity to the value of the RSOC.
