Chuck Liddell
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Template:MMAstatsbox Charles David 'Chuck' Liddell (born December 17 1969 in Santa Barbara, California), known as "The Iceman," is a mixed martial artist with a background in Kempo Karate, in which he holds a black belt, Koei-Kan Karate-Do, Kickboxing and Collegiate Wrestling. He currently fights in the Ultimate Fighting Championship and is the UFC Light Heavyweight Champion. He is considered by MMAWeekly.com to be the #1 ranked [undue weight? – discuss] fighter in the world. [1]
Liddell is primarily regarded as a somewhat unorthodox striker(due to his relaxed "hands-down" stance and the angles he throws punches from), with powerful kicks, seamless combination striking that usually includes a trademark looping overhand left hook, and counter-punching. He is also renowned for his knockout power, and is considered by some the hardest puncher at 205 pounds. Liddell also has very good wrestling skills, particularly his takedown defense. He was a four year starter on the wrestling team at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, which has a division one wrestling program. He graduated from Cal Poly with degrees in business and accounting. Liddell has endeared himself as a fan favorite and is one of the most popular UFC competitors. He is associated with the Pitfight team and recently earned a Purple Belt in Jiu-Jitsu.[2]
Career
By 2002, Liddell was considered the #1 contender for the light heavyweight title with growing popularity and support from fans. The UFC tried to arrange a title bout with then champion Tito Ortiz but Ortiz kept citing scheduling conflicts which frustrated the UFC brass. To force Ortiz's hand, they created an Interim Light Heavyweight Championship and matched Liddell with experienced former heavyweight Randy Couture at UFC 43 for that title. This was considered a fight many considered Chuck should win, and it was expected that he would then go on to fight Ortiz. However Couture suprised everyone by being able to neutralize Chuck's trademark powerful looping hooks with crisp straight punches and he eventually began taking Chuck down at will, with Chuck eventually losing via ground-and-pound TKO.
After this defeat, Liddell went to Japan to compete in the PRIDE 2003 Middleweight Grand Prix tournament as the UFC's representative. After defeating Alistair Overeem in the tourney's first round, Liddell was eventually TKOed by Quinton "Rampage" Jackson in the semi-finals of the Grand Prix, making Jackson Liddell's last and sole unavenged career loss to date.
Returning to the UFC, Chuck once again put himself in contention for a shot at the coveted light heavyweight title, preparing himself for a match against his controversial rival Tito Ortiz. Both men had trained at the Pitfight Club and experienced a falling-out that would escalate as Ortiz taunted Liddell. The falling out stemmed from Ortiz's unwillingness to give Liddell a title fight, even though Liddell was clearly one of the top contenders in the UFC. Eventually, after Ortiz lost the title to Randy Couture, the two clashed in a highly anticipated fight at UFC 47 April 2, 2004 in Las Vegas, Nevada. After most of the first round was spent feeling each other out Liddell threw a few punches and a kick which was blocked by Ortiz with Tito slapping himself on the head stating that he wanted more and when the round ended, Tito pushed John McCarthy out of his way into Chuck and yelled while Chuck exchanged some words. Shortly after the second round started, Liddell threw a flurry of punches which knocked Tito out for the victory. Since UFC 47, the bad blood between both fighters remained, with Ortiz repeatedly stating that he wanted "his" belt back. Despite Ortiz' feelings, he and Liddell would not fight again for two and a half years.
In early 2005, Liddell was seen on the inaugural season of The Ultimate Fighter, Spike TV's reality show featuring fighters new to the UFC competing for a UFC contract. Liddell served as coach of Team Liddell, while fellow fighter and then UFC Light Heavyweight champ Randy Couture coached Team Couture. The series was a success for both Spike TV and the UFC. Both of the winners of TUF, Diego Sanchez and Forrest Griffin, were members of Team Liddell, and they have gone onto wide-spread notoriety.
Liddell's highly anticipated and deserved rematch with Couture on April 16, 2005 at UFC 52 - a championship bout - ended in victory for Liddell via a first-round knockout. The fight was stopped at one point after Liddell's finger contacted Couture's eye, Couture was given time to recover, and the fight continued after Couture felt he was ready. Shortly after the victory, in May of 2005, Chuck Liddell signed a sponsorship deal with sports supplement company Xyience.
Before that rematch, Chuck was scheduled to defend his new title belt against fellow UFC veteran Jeremy Horn, at UFC 54, a matchup the UFC claimed was demanded by long-time fans of the sport since Horn gave Liddell his first loss. Throughout the bout, Liddell dominated Horn with aggressive punches, causing knockdowns in several rounds. Liddell's defensive wrestling ability, especially his renowned sprawl, stifled the bulk of Horn's offense, which was centered around grappling and submission wrestling. Liddell eventually won the fight via TKO in 2:46 minutes of the fourth round after Horn informed the referee that he couldn't see, avenging his first career loss and defending his championship.
On February 4 2006 at UFC 57, Liddell faced Randy Couture in a rubber match, defeating Couture via knockout in Las Vegas, Nevada to retain the Light Heavyweight championship belt. After the fight, Couture announced his retirement from mixed martial arts. In Chuck's next defense, at UFC 62 on August 26 2006, Liddell defended his belt against Renato Sobral, who he had defeated nearly 3 years ago. Liddell scored a quick technical knockout victory at 1:35 of the first round.
It was announced at UFC 61 in July 2006 that if Liddell beat Sobral, he would fight PRIDE Middleweight (205 lb) Champion, Wanderlei Silva in November at Las Vegas. Since then though, Dana White said the fight would not be happening, citing Silva's recent loss to Mirko Filipović. [3]
Liddell and Tito Ortiz were finally scheduled for what was perhaps the most anticipated match of the year at UFC 66, on December 30, 2006. Liddell's takedown defense neutralized Ortiz' wrestling ability, forcing Ortiz to stand up with him. Liddell went on to defeat Ortiz via TKO in the third round to successfully defend his Light Heavyweight championship. It was also revealed later that Liddell tore his MCL prior to the fight. During the fight he also popped the tendon out on his middle finger on his left hand.
It's rumored that Liddell's next fight would be a title fight against Quinton "Rampage" Jackson at UFC 71; this was reported by media websites Sherdog and MMA Weekly after Jackson's trainer confirmed the bout. [4][5] But the UFC has not released this information yet. Although the UFC website, UFC.COM, shows Jackson as a Light-Heavy Weight.
Strengths
Chuck Liddell is an excellent striker and has some jaw-shattering kicks(even though he doesnt really use them much) His sprawl is legendary as some of the best grapplers have tried to take him down they couldn't. Or if they got a chance to he would just find himself out of the ground in seconds.
Personal life
Liddell was once romantically linked to one-time UFC host, multi-platinum pop artist, and Playboy model Willa Ford. He claims they currently are "just friends." Chuck has two children. Trista, who is 9, and Cade, who is 8 .
Theme Music
Mixed martial arts record
Film career
He also appeared as "Graft" in the pilot episode of the TV series Blade: The Series, had a guest spot cameo in the first season of "Inked" on A&E, and made a brief appearance in the 1981 film The Postman Always Rings Twice with Jack Nicholson. He's the boy-scout that plays with a register, and is then scolded by Nicholson [6]. Chuck also had a very small part in the Jet Li Movie Cradle 2 the Grave as one of the cage fighters along side Tito Ortiz and Randy Couture. He also appeared on Good Morning Texas for an interview, and to promote the film 300, but fell asleep on-air mid interview [7]. After the UFC 68 PPV Dana White told that Liddell had pneumonia and that he was extremely angry that Liddell's team had let him do the interview.
See also
External links
- Professional MMA record for Chuck Liddell from Sherdog
- Official Website
- Website of Liddell's trainer John Hackleman and his facility, "The Pit"
- Chuck Liddell at IMDb
- Excepts from MMA Weekly Interview