Chuck Liddell Not Interested in Fighting Anderson Silva or Randy Couture
by Nate Wilcox on Dec 5, 2008 10:24 AM EST
in MMA News
Email
Print
Per Fighters Only:
Former UFC light-heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell has denied that he will be fighting Anderson Silva at UFC 95 in January.
Speaking to Fighters Only earlier, Liddell said that "nobody has talked to me at all about Randy or Anderson Silva".
"I know there was talk of me fighting [Anderson] in February. That is definitely not true, I’m not fighting until March or April," he explained.
He also expressed disinterest in fighting Randy Couture for a fourth time, saying: "To me at this point it doesn’t make sense."
The question that doesn't get asked is who Chuck DOES want to fight next. Somehow I don't see him hankering for a taste of Lyoto Machida.
I expect Chuck thinks he should get to fight the winner of Rampage Jackson vs Wanderlei Silva and then move right back to a title shot.
59 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Chuck’s options are dwindling. There aren’t too many top fighters that he can beat at this point. After Rampage beat Wanderlei, those two can go at it again in a legends of MMA match before the two fade into the annals of history.
that would be a really good fight.
i hope it becomes either hendo or shogun against chuck.. well thats if they win their fight first.
http://weoweoweo.deviantart.com/
by Anton Tabuena on Dec 5, 2008 12:10 PM EST up reply actions
Makes sense..
either that or Thiago Silva if he beats Lyoto.. the timing of the options tallies up with an April fight
The alternatives arn’t that great..
Jardine – I don’t see the need, I wouldnt do anything for Keith and given that the first matchup wasnt all that enthrawling they would have a hard time pushing it..
Vera – Would work but a loss for Vera would be 4/5 and the UFC would have a hard time justifying keeping him and thus, would lose his Phillipino fan base..
Luiz Cane – He has no name and at this stage of his career, Chuck needs big names..
Rampage (if he loses) – I don’t think a third fight is justified given that Chuck has had nothing for him the first two times.. (if he wins) – Same applies, plus Chuck wouldnt deserve it..
Machida – lol, no way Dana or Chuck would want this fight..
Wandy (if he wins) – Chuck should have a win before fighting someone will have beaten Jardine/Rampage back-to-back, (if he loses) – maybe, but I think you could save time and just watch 79 again, lol
Why not put together the Liddell v Vera fight? Vera called him out early in his career and you can build on that storyline. If Vera loses again does he even really deserve to be in the UFC? I understand the possibility of losing that fanbase and it’s a risk, but not as big as losing Liddell’s fanbase as he is arguably the most popular fighter in the entire organization. I think a Liddell v Vera matchup would be very interesting and could be sold to casual fans with a pretty good backstory. Maybe even have this as the introductory fight in the Philippines.
agreed
i dont think he should fight rampage again (win or lose vs wanderlei)
if wanderlei loses, then i guess him and chuck could go again, but i’m hoping he wins and fights for the title, or the winner of machia/silva (as a #1 contender fight).
i guess if evans loses to griffin, they could give chuck a chance to avenge the loss.
seeing as the shogun match was already set once, i think it’s the best option.
The UFC needs to use Chuck’s dwindling star power to propel one of the up and comers.
He needs to fight shogun, machida., or cane. Someone that is going to be in the UFC for a wihle and needs a good, high profile match so casuals notice him.
He probably does think he deserves a title shot after one fight.
The last thing in the world the UFC wants is for Chuck to get KTFO by Luis Cane in his next fight.
by Derek Suboticki on Dec 5, 2008 1:37 PM EST up reply actions
Misleading Headline?
That article doesn’t say anything about whether Chuck is interested in fighting Silva. It says nobody has talked to him about it, not that he’s disinterested or wouldn’t want to do it. It also doesn’t really say he’s not interested in fighting Randy, just that the matchup doesn’t make sense to him right now.
yeah really. you calling me a liar?
: P
seriously, the headline has to include the full names of all three fighters and there wasn’t room to say “chuck not interested in fighting randy for fourth time, hasn’t been approached about anderson silva fight”
Hey, it’s you guys’ site. I just love to read and post here, so I certainly would never do something as potentially damaging to my abilty to enjoy BE as call you a liar. :) I just found it odd that one of you guys (as opposed to some random FanPost) would put up an article with a title that is so (in my opinion) completely unbased on the actual content of the linked article. It doesn’t seem to be a big deal to anyone else, so maybe my medication are just a bit off or something.
What about something like, “Chuck Liddell denies being approached to fight Anderson Silva or Randy Couture”? Just off the top of my head …
And if my posts on this bother you, just take it on jamaleddin — it’s probably his fault somehow.
No doubt. At this point in his career, there should be little else that interests him, though I don’t think he is deserving at this time.
Eliot Marshall: Bader won. Like I said in the episode, I'm not going to make any excuses. It's my job to be able to deal with when somebody's doing that. It's not his job to change up his tactics.
http://eliotmarshall.com/
Chuck
probably would like another piece of Vernon"Tiger"White or Jeremy Horn at this point.Realistically though I think a fight with Brandon Vera or a rematch with Keith Jardine is the way to go.
There's no value in Lidell vs. Jardine
We all know Lidell is beatable, and Jardine is a guy who gets lucky or gets knocked out.
"It's like a flying knuckle sandwich." --Rogan
"And many men have eaten it." -- Goldy
Or, you know, execute’s Greg Jackson’s game plans to perfection.
by Derek Suboticki on Dec 5, 2008 1:37 PM EST up reply actions
It didn’t, but it worked against Chuck Liddell and Brandon Vera. The Dean of Mean is not a shit fighter, he’s a solid top ten fighter in the toughest division in the game right now. I’ma go ahead and defend Jardine.
Not a lot of people own wins over Chuck Liddell in the UFC.
by Derek Suboticki on Dec 5, 2008 1:43 PM EST up reply actions
I am not saying that,
& his gameplan did work great against Chuck (not getting KO’d) but he took plenty of damage in that fight as well. He is a good fighter, but lets not go crazy about who he is. He did catch Forrest & finish him, but against the top guys in his division or Chuck in his prime he is not winning.
When exactly
was Chuck’s prime because he defended and lost the light heavyweight championship the fight before Jardine? So did his prime end right before the Jardine fight.
Are you really asking that question?
The man was what 39 when that fight happened? I am pretty sure that the prime of his fighting career was the 3 or 4 years prior to that, you know when he dominated the entire division?
One more point,
he lost by decision to Jardine & had him close to being finished in that fight twice. So lets not kid ourselves that a motivated 39 year old Chuck would not have ended it, not to mention the fighter from a few years earlier.
3 or 4 years
before the Jardine fight Liddell wasn’t even the champion and was over in Pride getting handled by Rampage so how was he dominating the division? He won the championship and defended it in the six fights before Jardine so I would consider that time period to have been his prime years. You know while he was champ,by the way Chuck turns 39 at the end of this month.
You are right,
there is probably no declining of a fighters skills or reactions from 34-39. He defended it 6 times over what almost 3 years, that is considered dominant. Rampage is his cryptonite, but every fighter has that person, kind of like Wand was for Rampage. If you really thought Chuck was a) into & prepared for the Jardine fight and, b) still truly in his prime, then I have nothing else to say but sorry.
Buddy
do you even realize what you’re saying or are you one of those people who can’t admit their wrong? You’re saying Liddell’s prime was 3 or 4 years prior to the Jardine fight when he WASN’T even the champion.He won the title when he was 35 and lost it at 37,that’s a 2 year period.The only thing you should be sorry about is the fact you don’t realize that every fighters prime years are different you can’t simply say it’s when their 34 or 35.When do you think Randy Couture’s prime was at 34 when he just started in the sport.If your going to be so close minded to others opinion’s at least give Jardine a little credit for the fact he beat Chuck when no one thought he would.
If you read my post,
I give him credit for beating Chuck. What I am not saying is getting beat once by a guy when you are almost 38 & unmotivated does not make that fighter a top flight guy. And what I did say was “the 3 or 4 years prior to the Jardine fight were truly Chuck’s prime.” That means the entire 3-4 year period. He held the belt longer than any other person in that division. I admit that Chuck & Randy are both my boys, can you admit you are just a Chuck hater?
Meh....
Chuck doesn’t really sound like he is into fighting anyone from that little snippet. Most fighters say things like, “I’ll fight whoever they put in front of me….” or “It doesn’t matter who it is, I am here to fight…..” etc.etc. I think he has lost his hunger for the fight game. The Iceman sounds like he is looking for a few more pay days or maybe just wants to end his career on a win.
"Stop smiling you are about to be punched in the face !"
I think he realizes he’s at the end of his career, and wants to make the most of it. I don’t mean monetarily, but legacy-wise. Why fight Couture #4 when he can aim for the title one more time?
That would make sense for him but he doesn’t seem hungry for it. I think the KO from Evans really messed with his drive.
"Stop smiling you are about to be punched in the face !"
Chuck is towards the end of an illustrious career. Chuck, thus far, is the biggest star MMA has seen. He’s this sports version of Michael Jordan, Babe Ruth, or Hulk Hogan. At this point, Chuck needs to be involved with fights that are (a) against big names, (b) relevant to the sport, and © offer a winning situation for all parties involved.
Fights against Machida and Cane are out. No one knows who Cane is at this point and Machida, with only one finish in the UFC, has won but not performed at an exciting enough level to become an actual draw. Jardine is out because he fought Liddell previously and won a fairly un-exciting decision. Same can be said for Rashad based on his dominant finish of Liddell – that’s a closed book.
Assuming Couture and Anderson Silva are out of the running, the potential opponents are, in order:
(1) Shogun, should he beat Coleman. Despite his loss to Forrest, many still believe Shogun has the potential to dominate the division. Starting his chase for the title with a victory over Liddell would make him relevant to both the title picture and to the casual fans. If Liddell were to win, he would score a victory over a top ranked opponent and immediately insert himself into the title picture again. Shogun is a name, his high ranking would make the fight relevant, and it has positives for both sides.
(2) The Franklin/Hendo winner. Either of these guys would be a great main event opponent for Chuck and whoever won that fight could immediately challenge for the belt.
(3) Forrest Griffin, should he lose to Rashad. Chuck is not going to be fighting Rashad again anytime soon but if Forrest were to lose, Chuck v. Forrest would make a lot more sense. They are each arguably the two most popular fighters in the company and, with both coming off a loss to Evans, the fight would actually make sense to book.
(4) Wanderlei Silva, should he lose to Rampage. The first fight was fight of the decade to some people and everyone wants to see a rematch. If Wanderlei wins, he is going to likely challenge for the belt, and either way will have little to gain in terms of rankings in fighting a Chuck Liddell who is 1-3 in his past four. If Wanderlei loses to Rampage, this fight begins to make a lot more sense from a matchmaking perspective and will no doubt do huge at the box office.
All together, Shogun is the most likely opponent. It makes the most sense from a matchmaking perspective and the chances of him losing to Coleman are slim.
hadn't considered griffin.
probably cus i dont wanna see him lose the belt!
would definitely would make sense though.
griffin/liddell was the plan if chuck had beaten rashad… wasnt it?
I think Chuck wants a title shot too. You can sense from his interviews he thinks he deserves that kind of treatment given what he’s done. That or he wants a fight he can win and then get a title shot.
I think Shogun is obviously going to be the best fight. Shogun will brutalize Coleman in January, and then he can have some steam going into a Chuck fight. He’s also probably the “safest” big fight for Chuck stylistically, though who knows after Rashad.
Chuck-Machida is an option, but honestly, that fight would be horribly boring. Both men constantly back away, there would be very little action at all. I don’t see them going that way.
If Coleman can pull this off, it really fucks up Chuck’s options. He might HAVE to fight Anderson Silva.
by Derek Suboticki on Dec 5, 2008 1:38 PM EST up reply actions
I think Chuck wants to fight Anderson Silva, it’s Dana that doesn’t want it. Chuck has never been afraid to fight anyone in his career, I think all this psychological analysis of Liddell is way overstating the issue.
I agree with that completely,
even with his recent less than great performances he seems to step up for anyone out there. As another huge Chuck fan I really am scared about seeing him fight Da Spider at this point in his career. Three years ago was the time for this fight
I really want to see Spider KO’d viciously.
Is that too much to ask?
by lbk on Dec 5, 2008 3:05 PM EST up reply actions
I also think Chuck is as big of a star as ever, even with that loss. I think there’s a Tyson factor, people bought his fights for a long time after he lost his dominant edge. He drew a very good buyrate against Rashad Evans of all people even though he has those 2 losses, I don’t think his draw power is much diminished at all.
They need a main event for Dayton on 3/7. If Nogueira could do a quick turnaround they could unify the titles there, if not it’s probably where Chuck will fight. Honestly, it’s hard to think of anyone that could be ready, unless guys are willing to do quick turnarounds.
it’s hard to wake up at 5am to train when you sleep in silk sheets…..
it’s a motivation issue. he will still perform at a high level if you pick an opponent that he thinks would be a challenge. he’s obviously not interested in randy…neither am i for that matter. he just couldnt push himself in camp for someone he feels he proved he is better than…. could you?
chuck doesnt have to prove anything to anyone at this point. he can look back on his life and be very pleased. he has achieved a level of success that most likely none of us bloggers will ever come close to, regardless of how we each define success.
so far as who he should fight, dropkick has a damn good list. I think I want the forrest lidell match the most (after rashad beats forrest)
but in summary, that man can do whatever he wants and anyone saying he’s ducking someone or should retire is probably just too young to understand what it is to be a man.
by Headkick on Dec 5, 2008 2:31 PM EST reply actions 1 recs
Exactly,
this sport is about 1 winner & 1 loser so everyone is going to have their losses. He has iconic stature in this sport, just like Randy & either one of them should fight & do for that matter what the hell ever they want to at this point in their careers.
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Related FanPosts on Bloody Elbow
Related FanShots on Bloody Elbow
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recommended FanPosts
Recent FanPosts
MMA Rankings
