First of all I just want to say that I hope Chuck is/will be physically and mentally ok following the fight. The knockout was undeniably brutal and of the type that can have lasting effects on a fighter.

Regarding Chuck's current situation, he is 1-3 in his last four fights and clearly has holes in his game that leave his chin open for flash knockouts.

A couple of years ago I got to talk to Jim Lampley and I asked him how a guy like Roy Jones could go from unbeatable to middle of the road in what seemed like one year's time. He told me that Jones was amazingly physically gifted, to the point where his physical skills, especailly his quickness and handspeed, were enough to keep other boxers from ever landing anything against him so he developed bad habits like leaving his hands down. Jim said that when you get older your reflexes slow down and can no longer protect you from the bad habits you developed throughout your career.

I believe this to be the same situation as with Chuck, except that in this case the holes are being exploited not simply because of a decline in physical ability (although its unlikely that at 38 years old that Chuck is at his physical peak) but by an increase in talented strikers in the UFC that can exploit any weakness in their opponent's game. The days of single dimensional fighters competing in the UFC are dead and the day of the freak athletes who also are well trained strikers is closing in fast. Look at the guys who have caught Chuck on the button recently: Rashaad Evans and Rampage Jackson, both are amazingly gifted athletes who have been forced by the increased competition in the UFC to spend significant time training their striking rather than maintain a single dimensional wrestling based style. Top it off by the fact that the increased exposure and income that UFC fighters have received over the last few years has allowed them to establish relationships with world class striking coaches.

Chuck had the same holes in his style when he looked unbeatable. He never needed to address those holes because they were never exploited. Unfortunately for Chuck the evolution of the UFC also includes increased use of video tape. Top level fight coaches like Greg Jackson can sit down and watch every single fight Chuck has ever had, over and over, picking up weaknesses and devising a game plan much the same way coaches in the NFL device gameplans tailored to attack the weankesses of opposing teams.

Chuck still has plenty of options for big money fights in the future and hes still very exciting to watch but much like Roy Jones, his bad habbits have finally caught up to him, unlike Jones, the driving factor has been the evolution of the sport.