Chuck Liddell Not Ready To Retire

“The Iceman” Not Ready for Retirement

More so than any other sport, mixed martial arts is a “what have you done for me lately?” business. Past glory and championship runs lose value with each passing day. A fighter is only as good as their last fight.

Ask Chuck Liddell. He knows all about it.

Once the face of the franchise, a five-fight stretch from May 2007 to April 2009 left many wondering if “The Iceman” had anything left.

Despite earning a win over Wanderlei Silva in the 2007 Fight of the Year, all fans and critics saw were the two losses that sandwiched that performance from either side. Before his long-awaited encounter with “The Axe Murderer,” Liddell lost his light heavyweight title to Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, and dropped a split decision to Keith Jardine. Following the three round epic with Silva, both Rashad Evans and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua left “The Iceman” looking up at the lights.

Questions started to arise. Whispers grew louder in volume. Long-time friend, former manager and current boss Dana White delivered a deafening blow when he told the assembled masses that he felt it was time for Liddell to retire following his lost to Rua at UFC 97. Fans and media tended to agree with the UFC President. Most everyone did.

Everyone except Chuck Liddell, that is.

“I’m not ready to go,” said Liddell a week before making the trip to Vancouver to headline UFC 115 opposite Rich Franklin. “I’m not ready for it to be done. I’m at the point now where if I quit because someone told me to and I didn’t feel like I was ready, a couple years down the road it would always be in the back of my mind. I shouldn’t have stopped. I should have kept going.

“This way, I gotta go out on my own, when I feel like it’s time to go. But I needed some time off,” continued the former light heavyweight champion and winner of 15 fights inside the Octagon. “I needed to get out of the ring. I needed to make some changes. I needed to work on things that I was doing wrong and come back new.”

Instead of hanging up his four-ounce gloves, Liddell took a mini-sabbatical from mixed martial arts. As odd as it may sound, he credits his appearance on ABC’s hit series Dancing with the Stars as the catalyst for his return to the cage and his renewed commitment in the gym.

“I started getting back in shape with the bet with Dana,” Liddell offered. While working out together at UFC 101 in Philadelphia, White issued a $10,000 challenge to Liddell to make 215 pounds by September 15th. Needing to get in shape for his weekly trek to the dance floor, Liddell won the bet, and once again found his passion.

“While I was doing [Dancing with the Stars] I kind of remembered that I really like training and doing things I’m good at,” Liddell recalled before adding, “and not dancing, which I suck at.”

Back in shape and not ready to retire, all that was missing was an opportunity to get back into the cage. White presented that chance in the form of a coaching slot on The Ultimate Fighter, with a familiar face to be heading up the other team.

Liddell’s long-time nemesis Tito Ortiz was tabbed to coach one half of the fighters to be assembled for Season 11, and Liddell accepted the remaining position, complete with the opportunity to, as he put it, “knockout Tito again” in the traditional coaches clash at the end of the season.

As we all now know, that opportunity might not materialize, as Ortiz withdrew from the fight and was fired from the show, with Rich Franklin stepping in as his replacement. The level of Liddell’s frustration was evident on last week’s episode that featured the announcement, and remained the same several weeks after the cameras stopped rolling.

“That’s the whole point of the show,” began Liddell, his voice tinged with frustration. “The reason for doing the show is to build the pay-per-view up. My whole problem with him is that he should have made [the decision to have surgery] before he did the show. I didn’t want to do the show with him anyway. I don’t like the guy.

“I would have rather done it with Forrest or Rich from the start,” Liddell suggested. The replacement of Ortiz ended up being the worst kept secret of the spring and a minor media event, as White tried diligently to keep the cat in the bag despite internet assurances that a change to the coaching staff and UFC 115 main event was coming.

While his third opportunity to face Ortiz has gone under the knife, Liddell expects his arch enemy to make a return, but has one condition he wants met.

“I’ve already made that statement to Dana,” answered Liddell when asked if he should be given the first chance to face Ortiz should “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” decide to return after recovering from spinal surgery. “It’s only fair. Offer that fight to me.”

In an ironic twist, whether Ortiz will make a return to the Octagon is now the retirement question tabled for discussion. Liddell believes he’ll return, provided he can pick and choose his opponents and avoid their third meeting.

As for the 40-year-old former champion, the retirement plans everyone was making for him a year ago have been put on hold. He wasn’t ready to walk away, and didn’t want to have his own Brett Favre moment.

Instead, he’s headlining the company’s first trip into Vancouver, and plans on making another run at the light heavyweight title. For those who scoff at the suggestion, the last guy that doubted what a focused and motivated Chuck Liddell could do is out $10,000.

Whether he makes it back to the top of the division is yet to be determined. One thing we know for sure, however, is that Chuck Liddell isn’t ready to head to the retirement home just yet.

He’s still got some fight left in him.

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