UFC Quick Quote: Randy Couture is accounting for Chuck Liddell’s retirement options
By: Jesse Holland
He should be able to make [the decision to retire] on his own and still have the option to fight if that’s what’s really in his heart. But I understand too, him and Dana are very close, and Dana doesn’t want to see him get hurt, get knocked out. He’s still going to be a public figure for the company, an ambassador for appearances, for representing products and fights. The UFC’s getting involved in this whole gym endeavor – that’s an area that Chuck could be of use for them, setting up curriculums and training regimens for striking and wrestling. There’s places for him for sure. Whatever he decides to do, I’ll back him. Maybe he’ll be the accountant.
– Former UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight champion Randy “The Natural” Couture weighs in with MMAWeekly about the Chuck Liddell retirement talk after Dana White and trainer John Hackleman turned the “Iceman’s” decision to retire (or fight on) into a public spectacle. The soon to be 40-year-old Chuck is just 1-4 in his past five fights with three (T)KO losses. While each party involved has a valid argument for the future of the former 205-pound champ, Liddell himself is the only one who’s keeping tight-lipped on his next move while his two friends battle it out in the court of public opinion.
53 Comments »
I think a Balance Sheet might even knock out Chuck these days
Lol
Yeah its such a shame. Prior to the rua fight i was hoping/ in denial that he still had something left. He hasn’t, he looked so slow and terrible.
I honestly believe 80% of the L/HW roster would beat him.
Thing is like boxers of old its a scary thought retiring and having no income coming in. Hence they take “one last fight”. I could see him fighting outside of the UFC for one big last paycheck and getting KTFO again.
i hope he leaves it at that and retires before we start seeing him get KO’d by B-level fighters
id like a james irvin-chuck liddell fight just to irvin could get a sweet knockout over a big name
No point in that. The Liddell of old would have destroyed Irvin, and there isn’t anyone with 2 brain cells in their head that thinks otherwise. There is no glory in beating a fighter that is well past his prime.
Wow, from poster boy to certified public accountant. That’s a transition faster than Palhares switching from triangle to an armbar. Good luck Chuck. You’re still the Iceman to me. Though some of your ice have melted…
Dam global warming!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dana should let chuck finish the last fight on his contract. Liddell vs. Banha!!!!!!!!!!!! Its not like Dana can keep chuck trapped in his contract by not giving him his last fight, because those contracts have a time limit attached to it, so If chuck doesnt take his last fight, in 1 year tops, his contract is void, and Chuck can still sign with any other organization, so Dana should honor chucks contract and give him his last fight, if thats really what chuck wants….Personally, I dont really care if I ever see Chuck fight again, but some things are sacred, and I dont want to see chuck fighting in any other organization, but I do feel that its his prerogative. hopefully Dana shuts his damn mouth up about Hackleman….Is it really necessary for Dana to RUIN every single relationship he has?
I can see both points of view, on one hand Chuck is a grown man and a legend of the sport who helped bring MMA and the UFC brand into the mainstream so he deserves to be treated with dignity and given the chance to win his last fight, because the Rua defeat is no way for the Iceman to go plus he is still contracted for one more fight so he should be given the opportunity to face someone just outside of the top 10 like Cane, Vera or Hamill. Not only would it give Chuck a chance to redeem itself but it could also give lesser known fighters their big chance to shine and establish themselves as future contenders.
On the other hand, it’s always sad seeing a once dominant fighter lose consistently when his time has passed. It takes away some of the legacy that the fighter built for himself when he loses to guys that wouldn’t have had a hope of winning if he was in his prime and I wouldn’t like to see Chuck doing a Shamrock, where he is beaten by nobodies because he stayed fighting too long. It’s also dangerous for Chuck’s health to continue fighting because he has been KO’d so many times in his recent fights and if he isn’t careful, he could end up doing permeanent damage to his brain by not retiring. Look at Ali, he was the greatest boxer of all time and a great talker but now he is a broken man physically and mentally. Nobody wants to see this happen to Chuck, especially his good friend Dana.
I just hope that Dana, Chuck and Hackleman can all have a private discussion on the Iceman’s future so that they can come to some sort of agreement that suits all because a Dana-Chuck bust-up would be a sorry way to end a great partnership.
I hate seeing this happen to Chuck. This is like watching Jordan when he played for the Wizards and was getting taken to the hole by guys who wouldn’t have been good enough to wipe the sweat off his balls when he was in his prime.
good comparison…do they really have sweat wipers?
The really good ones hang out in NBA hotel lobbies telling all the players that they really are on birth control, then “accidentally” getting 18 years worth of 6-figure child support payments.
hahahahaha
Chuck does have a degree in Accounting… but obviously he won’t choose do that.
dawm sucks to see someone I Loved seeing fighting career and like this, I wish he could of ended on a win!!!
no matter how good u were if you take your career to far and loose a lot people are always gonna hate and say u were never that good
I bet if some one like gsp, silva , fedor lost there next 4-5 fights in a row people would start saying how they were never that good!!!!!!!!
Yeah Chuck was the man, maybe he still is, it’s hard to call. I just don’t ever wanna see him get ko’d the way he did vs. Rashad, it was on spike last night and everytime I see that replay it makes me wanna puke and cry at the same time.
I will NEVER say that chuck wasnt GREAT, but I do think his title run was over rated. when chuck was king, the best 205 ers were all in Pride. I would say that the year 2005 was the golden age…Pride had most of the trop 205 lb’ers: Hendo, wandy, Rampage, Arona, Rogerio, Alistar, Shogun….. At that time, chuck was 1-1 against these guys: getting destroyed by Rampage, and an impressive come from behind win over alistar, He also beat Mezgar in Pride, but he sucks!….chucks reign was impressive, but a lot of the guys he beat weren’t top fighters if you want me to be honest. For example: Vernon White, Randleman, Vitor (not in his prime), Jeremy Horn, Tito…Meh!
Only wins of him that IMO, were championship caliber wins were Tito and Randy.
All in all, Chuck was a great fighter, and an Iconic figure in mma. He was America’s 1st breakthrough mma superstar…and he his popularity has done wonders for the sport. Imo, like all great athletes that got alod, for Example Brett Favre. he has EARNED the right to RETIRE on his terms, and its tasteless for Dana to try and take that decision out of chuck’s hands!
His Babaulu wins were impressive mate. I know where your coming from tho.
It will always sit like a fly in the ointment that loss to Rampage. He went over there in his prime and got destroyed.
In my humble opinion, the sport has caught up and passed Liddell. Chuck hasn’t changed his style nor added anything new to his game, while the new breed of MMA fighters are more well rounded and dangerous. He leaves his chin exposed everytime and doesn’t work any type of ground game, which leads to predictability. That being said, I love Chuck and hope he fights again. I know he’s slow, but if he recognizes the fact that he needs to alter his style a bit, he can still win.
i TOTALLY Agree with you john, its what i have ALWAYS thought, he was good against all those grapplers he beat and then when all the pride stars came over who could strike, he would lose
babs, tito, and coture were legit comp at that time, and he beat them all twice, randelmen was a beast back then as well. wandy didn’t do all that well in the ufc, but then destroyed everyone in pride, so you figure this sh!t out. No doubt wandy and chuck were the best of there time, and chuck got the win over wand so to say chuck was over rated is kinda bogus. 2005 was some great times.
Great post John!
I agree too John. He has a lot of scrubs on his resume.
Oh yeah john,you really got good points?So let me get this strait…You tell us that Chuck is over rated for having win against cans that wasn’t top 10 competition.Tito was over rated b/c he too face cans back in the day and he’s not a good fighter b/c of many other facts(your facts).Belfor is over rated b/c he wasn’t in his prime in 2002/04.Forrest is over rated b/c…so many reasons that you,can find.Rashad is over rated b/c he’s not as top striker that everyone think he is…GOD DAMN it must sucks to be you to have been force to watch all these champions holding the belt in the last 7-8 years!A chance for you that you got a break with Rampage!eh!
WTF,i don’t know what just happen the damn ting just decided to post itself…anyway i was saying that Randy was over rated b/c of…i don’t remember what was your opinion.But,i’m sure that you said he was over rated too!
Even though I respects John’s comparison, I have to go with Blazy J’s comparison. Rampage’s style back then was a bad matchup with Wanderlei. Rampage is just a bad matchup for Chuck. Chuck was definitely at the top of his game back then. Not only did he beat those guys, he beat them decisively! KO’s galore!
Not that I meant he beat wanderlei or Rampage back then, but Tito, Couture and everyone else.
I can agree with John’s perspective on this, and the fact that I was always a Chuck fan is compelling me to simply note however that Chuck didn’t simply “beat” these guys, he fucking murdered most of them. That, to me, counts for something. It’s also difficult to say who in Pride, if anyone, wasn’t completely full of juice at the time either.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but it just seems strange that two of the greatest 205-ers in the history of the sport are now each 1-4 in their last 5 fights with 3 fairly brutal knockouts apiece. That’s bizarre! Kinda feels like I was just watching them tear through their respective divisions only months ago. An era has definitely come to a close in our sport.
I wonder what the odds are that we ever see two fighters quite as dynamic and brutal as Wandi and Chuck again.
Worse things than retiring… won’t name names cause no point beating a dead horse. Though I have my doubts that unsaid person could beat that dead horse.
Ken Shamrock
I want to see chuck fight one more time. LET HIM FINISH HIS CONTRACT!!!!! CHUCK VS. COLEMAN!!!!!
Yeah I suggested the same thing a few weeks back. Bump Bonnar off the card and pair him up with someone else. If they can change the Forrest Thiago Silva fight then they can change the Coleman Bonnar fight.
What made chuck the legend that the ufc billed him as was because he was their guy that was constantly putting on standup kockouts on ppv when pppl wanted too see knocuts… he also was marketable with his style and recognizle face he soon because a rockstar and ufc got popuar i think the 2nd titio fight is still like the higest grossing fight. fast forward and chcuk stuck it out with his camp and style while he had a rockstar life on the side, which may or may have not slowed him down but it was his inability to evolve in mma but tis also the case of him paying his due and dana needs to saty quite for a while. i recently saw an article about how dan white needs to settle down so to sopeak in order for mma to get to the next step i like dane but if he just only used his passion trowrds fights and not lashing out and stuff in public maybe there would be more leway
Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes
lol Tito Ortiz, or frank shamrock,
Tito?
Why Tito???
Randy may be being nice but it comes out patronizing.
Maybe the setup for a Randy Chuck mutual retirement fight?
I hope not……
I dont care how chuck goes out – he got me in to MMA n will always be a Legend. He held the belt for so long, had a aura that nobody could fuck with, n most importantly he beat his nemesis the Axe Murderer. Thats all the Iceman needed achieve.
If he really wants that last fight, win or lose let him go out with a bang – A.Silva or Rampage 3.
Rampage and Anderson would decimate Chuck, the whole reason for this big argument over Chuck retiring is that Dana doesn’t want to see him KO’d again and after the brutal defeats to Rampage, Rashad and Shogun there is no way that Dana will allow Chuck to face either Silva or Rampage in the UFC.
I’d like to see him fight one more time but it can’t be against a top 5 LHW because he would lose badly again and a 1-4 record in his last 5 UFC fights rules him out of facing the top guys in the division anyway as they wouldn’t gain anything from a win. I would rather see him face a good fighter who isn’t a contender yet, like Vera, Cane, Hamill, Jones or Cantwell.
I think chuck needs to come out and say something, if he does retire now he needs to go with dignity and not drag it on or say no i wanna carry on and let everyone know where he stands. Whats the point of letting everyone talk for him he can just end it now either way!
chuck shouldn’t retire he should go to strikeforce and take out babalu and he’ll be the champ. hes done it twice.
Dana should let chuck finish his contract. THat coleman chuck fight would be sick. For sure he has a chance to knock out coleman
Chuck-Coleman would be a sorry state of affairs in my opinion, it’d be like having Shamrock-Gracie in the UFC. I like Chuck and want him to go out with a win but a fight with Coleman would just look silly and be a blatant old-timers freakshow. If the UFC wants to be taken seriously by the media then this is not the way to go about it.
I have watched the UFC for years and Liddell is one of my favorites. I read these articles and check the comments and usually see so many fighters getting trashed by so-called fans of the UFC. All the fighters (whether you like them or not) go into the ring and get their brains beat out for our entertainment and don’t deserve the trash talk. They pay their dues in the ring and it is refreshing to see so many positive comments about one of the greatest fighters to ever grace the octogon. Liddell deserves the respect of all the fans, Dana and the UFC. Like him or not, win or lose…the man is one of the biggest badasses EVER! He will always be a winner.
I agree with Dragon. I watched the replay of the Liddell/Evans fight and wanted to puke and cry at the same time but it still doesn’t take anything away from what he has achieved.
Love ya Iceman! If you wanna fight again I’ll pay to see it. Win or lose…YOU’RE THE MAN!!!!!
Just read this article and the comments that follow and it is refreshing to see that no one had anything really bad to say. So many times I read these articles and the comments that follow are just trash. Have followed the UFC for years and Liddell is one of my favorites. The fighters (whether you like them or not) step into the ring and get their brains beat out for our entertainment. They all deserve our props and it was refreshing to read all the positive comments about one the the greatest fighters to ever “grace” the octogon. He deserves the respect of the fans, Dana White and the UFC. He was and still is one of the biggest badasses ever!! If he fights again I will support him by paying to see the fight and win or lose…he will always be one of the greats!! Thanks to Chuck and all the other fighters that put their bodies and minds on the line in the octogon. Thanks for all the great fight nights. We love you Chuck and I hope you bust some heads if you fight again.
I do agree with Dragon about the replay of the Evans fight. Makes me wanna puke and cry at the same time.
Chuck Liddell will always be my favorite fighter to watch, but the sport has changed fighters are younger and more well rounded than Chuck. I dont want to see Chuck highlight reeled anymore on the losing side of a knock Out.
Maybe he’ll be the accountant…lol.
Randy mentioned accounting because Chuck has an accounting degree from Cal Poly
Imo randy can beat gsp silva bj and rashad why when he is the champ he is not considered top pound for pound is beyond me! Chuck should change up his style mma is mma takedowns and gnp are the most effective ways to win a fight and not put yourself in any danger to take hard punishment I think gsp validated that point for me. Chuck is a phenomenal wrestler change your style up like gsp and if that still doesn’t work maybe we’ll see him lose by decision not devastating k.o I like the matchup against the sandman why not
really chuck is a phenominal wrestler? He has a good takedown defense but thats all I have seen to demonstrate he is a phenominal wrestler. He was able to stand when tito took him down but thats cuz tito didn’t have a full takedown, thanks to chuck’s takedown defense. But I haven’t seen anything to demonstrate PHENOMINAL skills once he is actually on the mat.
I don’t think he has gotten too old to fight, I simply think all of these guys in his division now a days are just better than him. Even in his prime he didn’t beat rampage, I don’t think he could have beaten rashad or rua and lyoto machida either. He probably could have beaten jardine, not everytime they faced off but I’m sure he could have taken him in his prime. But still that leaves four guys better than him even in his prime. The fighters of today are just too well rounded for guys like chuck, same definately goes for hughes and tito as well.
by phenomenal I meant he wrestled division 1 which should be enough in my opinion to master takedowns for mma