The end of Chuck “the Iceman” Liddell??

As most of you already know, I’m a huge supporter of Chuck and everything that’s he’s done in and outside of the cage.  I’ve watched numerous fights that he competed in that weren’t in the UFC including his Vale Tudo (anything goes) fight in Brazil, his fight with the promotion of Neutral Grounds (11), and serving as the UFC representative in the 2003 Pride Middleweight Grandprix (where he was KO’d by another well known former light heavyweight, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson).  What is going on with Chuck? 

As of this last fight on UFC 88 “Breakthrough” he’s currently 1 for 4, with the only win coming in a split decision against Wanderlei Silva approximately 8 months ago at UFC 79 “Nemesis.  What everyone seems to overlook is that his last 4 fights don’t taint the big picture of what he’s accomplished within MMA.  Let’s break this down a little bit without accounting for the last 4 fights.  Without the last 4 fights Wikipedia notes that he’s competed in 27 professional fights, with 21 wins and 6 losses.  All you math whizzes are quick to explain that that would have put his record before May 2007 at 20 wins and 3 losses.  To break it down a little bit farther we will note that 13 of these 20 wins were from either TKO or KO.  The other 7 wins include six fights that went the distance to a decision and one submission due to rear naked choke.  The 3 losses come from TKO’s that included throwing in the towel, an arm triangle choke, and strikes (which came from Couture at UFC 43).  I’m not sure what everyone else is thinking, but that’s a damn good record with a 10-fight win streak and the most recent 7-fight win streak.

Now let’s account for the recent marring of his record with the last 4 fights, starting with his headlining with the former heavyweight champion Rampage Jackson at UFC 71.  As most know this was the beginning of what some are declaring as the downfall of Chuck Liddell but this isn’t boxing so stop trying to count to 10.  This fight was the 2nd meeting of the two and the outcome was pretty much the same.  Plain and simple, Rampage beat his ass.   That’s life ladies and gentlemen, Chuck lost but he did it with showmanhsip and his sanity intact (unlike Rampage’s loss of the belt).  On to his next loss against Keith Jardine at UFC 76.  I really don’t want to get into this fight all that much because personally, I believe that Keith Jardine is the most overrated fighter in all of MMA for the time being.  Let alone the fact that this went to a split decision I’m not going to touch it so that I don’t share anymore of my prolific disdain for “The Mean One”.  Loss is a loss, next fight against the Wanderlei “the Axe Murderer” Silva at UFC 79 “Nemesis”.  This one goes the distance, to the unanimous decision and another W in the books for Chuck against another one of the greatest mixed martial artists of all time.  Sure there’s critics out there that say “oh this fight wasn’t all that great and didn’t prove anything” and I call these people fools.  Here we have a fight between two men who have had huge impacts on the sport itself and have been killing themselves in the gym for many years ( Chuck’s 38, Wanderlei is 32).  This fight was spectacular, and it proved that Chuck’s still in the game with the best of the best.

Now it’s time for the most recent fight.  UFC 88 “Breakthrough” showed the world that ”Sugar” Rashad Evans has a nasty right hook and a spectacular fight-plan with his tremendous KO of Chuck at 1:51 in the 2nd round.  Those of you who put money on the fight realized that on most of the betting lines, Chuck came into this fight as the HEAVY favorite.  Now, those of you who aren’t familiar with betting lines and gambling are wondering right now “Well what the hell does that mean to me?”.  Let me explain betting lines really quickly to disseminate any questions or misunderstanding of what I’m saying.  To make a “line” there’s numerous professionals who collaborate as to who they predict will win and the odds of the underdog losing.  With this being said, people who get paid to make strategic decisions to make a profit for a betting company took all the facts that they could find about both fighters and said “chances are really good that Chuck is gonna end up the victor”.  Don’t get me wrong, MMA isn’t a very predictable sport by any means, and I’m not taking any credit away from Rashad for his spectacular KO. 

With all this being said though, you can’t count Chuck out.  Sure he may be getting a little older in the game, and sure he may be very predictable with his mainly ’stand-up’ fight game but that doesn’t mean that he still doesn’t have more heart and dedication than all of us combined.  Expect to see him rebounding with his next fight whenever Dana White deems that may be.  He won’t get out like this, and whie the likes of Couture still around being as old as he is, Chuck’s still got a solid 10 fights left in him if not more.

In closing, I would like to volunteer myself to be a paid editor for Chuck’s official homepage www.icemanmma.com due to the apparent lack of knowledge of the big names in MMA like “Rasheed Evans” and “Forrest Griffith”.  As always, come to www.mmachump.com for all your MMA news, discussion and MMA addictions.

-Tuck Styles

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