The career of Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell, in all estimation, came to an end on Saturday night in Vancouver at UFC 115. In this five part series, we'll take a look back at one of the greatest light heavyweight fighters in the sport's young history.
With a career record of 21-8 over 12 years as a professional fighter, Chuck Liddell certainly has no shortage of great performances over his career. The former Light Heavyweight Champion and UFC Hall of Famer introduced a whole new era of fans to the sport with his time coaching on The Ultimate Fighter, leading to the first true boom period for mixed martial arts in North America, subsequently coinciding with his Title reign.
After looking back on his career this week, I wanted to present what I feel are Liddell's five greatest fights, both in terms of his in cage/ring performance as well as for their impact on his career and the sport of MMA. With that out of the way, here are my top five Chuck Liddell fights:
5. Chuck Liddell vs. Renato "Babalu" Sobral I (UFC 40: Vendetta, Nov. 22, 2002)
This fight is on here for a couple of reasons. First, it's perhaps Liddell's most memorable highlight reel knockout, and two, it was a victory over an extremely experienced and formidable opponent that earned him his first shot at UFC gold.
Sobral entered UFC 40 with a 20-4 record, and though he had lost two of his previous three fights entering the Octagon with Liddell in Las Vegas that night, those last two losses came to Fedor Emelianenko and a still very dangerous Kevin Randleman by decision.
Liddell beat Sobral to the punch for the first couple of minutes, avoiding takedown attempts and generally doing more in the fight. After throwing a few punches as Babalu tried to engage, Liddell threw up a high kick that cracked Sobral on the chin, sending him to the canvas. He jumped down with a couple of blows before referee "Big" John McCarthy tackled him off to stop the fight.
The win was his 10th straight and next up was an Interim Light Heavyweight Title bout against Randy Couture.
4. Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz I (UFC 47: It's On, April 2, 2004)
At the time this was the most highly anticipated non-title fight in UFC history. It was a fight that should have happened over a year earlier, when Ortiz was still Champion and Liddell had earned a title shot, but due to "injury" Ortiz had been holding out for some time and Liddell was plugged into the fight with Couture. Though he lost that fight, and dropped another in Japan to Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, Liddell returned to the Octagon to finally face Ortiz.
Tito had lost his Title to Couture in 2003, and the fight with Liddell was a long time coming after years of accusations that he had been ducking "The Iceman."
The first round of the fight didn't feature a whole lot of action, but the significant offense came from Liddell in the final seconds, as he landed a number of blows on Tito against the cage that had the crowd roaring. It didn't take long in the second for Liddell to continue the assault, and he unleashed a huge flurry of blows against the cage to put Tito out and pick up his biggest victory to date.
3. Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz II (UFC 66: Liddell vs. Ortiz II, December 30, 2006)
The second meeting between Liddell and Ortiz gets placed a notch higher because, while Liddell's first victory was the more impressive and quicker victory of the two fights, the second one had a Title on the line and set the record for pay-per-view buys for an MMA fight at 1.05 million.
In fact, the fight itself is of little consequence to the importance this bout brought to the UFC, Liddell and MMA in general. It ended in very similar fashion to the first fight, with Liddell landing blows against the cage and forcing the stoppage with a flurry, but what came after is what propelled Liddell and the sport into the mainstream.
The fight got initial exposure on ESPN, but Liddell's win brought an even bigger level of popularity, exposing him to the masses in a way never seen in the sport in the U.S. Because of this fight, his next bout with Quinton "Rampage" Jackson got even more mainstream press, and though that fight began the downfall of his career, this fight was Liddell's peak as a mainstream star and Champion.
2. Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva (UFC 79: Nemesis, December 29, 2007)
Perhaps the single most enjoyable fight of Liddell's career, it was another bout a longtime in the making. Both he and Wanderlei Silva were the cream of the crop of the division in their respective organizations in 2005, Liddell in the UFC and Silva in Pride, but the two had never faced off before.
The UFC actually tried to put the fight together before this event, bringing Wanderlei into the cage to announce that the fight was coming before it initially fell through. It was a dream fight for MMA fans everywhere, and the war the two engaged in left no one disappointed.
For 15 minutes both fighters left it all in the Octagon, landing brutal combinations and taking punishment from the other fighter. While both the first and third rounds provided their fair share of action, the second round was one of the single most enjoyable rounds of MMA action I've ever seen.
The unfortunate side note to the fight is that both fighters were past their respective prime in the bout, though for Wanderlei he's attempting to find a new resurgence in the middleweight division, but this will always be remembered as the last great Chuck Liddell performance, as it will in all likelihood go down as "The Iceman's" final victory.
But none of that matter in regards to the memories that fans will always have of this fight. It brought an answer to the question of what would happen in a fight between the two highly regarded 205 lb. fighters, and it left a lasting impression on fans everywhere.
1. Chuck Liddell vs. Randy Couture II (UFC 52: Couture vs. Liddell II, April 16, 2005)
With the conclusion of The Ultimate Fighter's first season, the two coaches faced off in a rematch of a bout that had only a fifth of the viewers the rematch would attain. The breakout pay-per-view for the UFC was only the beginning of the massive uptick in business the organization would see over the next number of years, but it was a clear sign that they had something in The Ultimate Fighter.
The first time the two faced off, Couture was able to out-box Liddell and kept him off-guard with an effective grappling game before finishing him off in the third round, but Liddell entered the rematch an improved fighter, and he blasted Couture with a right hand that put "The Natural" out just over two minutes into the fight.
This fight showed a dramatic turnaround from their first bout, and Liddell's Title victory set him up for all of the popularity that came his way while he held the belt for the next 25 months. This win was the most important of his career, and in what was at the time the biggest fight of his career, Liddell came out on top in a big way, leaving an impression on UFC fans everywhere.
Though he completed his career on an unfortunate downturn, Liddell will always be remembered for being at the forefront of the UFC's explosion into the mainstream and the UFC's first true superstar. All of these fights were a part of his story, and he gave fans even more memorable and enjoyable moments throughout his career.
RELATED STORY: PENICK: Looking back on the career of Chuck Liddell part three - "The Iceman" goes out swinging: [CLICK TO READ FULL ARTICLE]
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