Chuck Liddell Interview - Fight Forum - MMA - UFC - Boxing - K1

The-Iceman-Chuck-Liddell · 09-14-2007, 04:12 PM

Quote:

Death, taxes, and Chuck Liddell. The first two we can all do without, but when it comes to the sure things in this world, it’s nice to know that the former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion never changes. There’s no fluff, no entourage, no soliloquies on the philosophy of the fight game – Liddell comes to fight and he focuses on what’s in front of him; not what happened four months ago or what may happen three months from now.

Not to say the past and the future isn’t worth talking about, because what happened in May and what may happen in December is fresh on the minds of fight fans, who want to know how Liddell has reacted to the loss of his title to Quinton Jackson at UFC 71, and if he wants to fight Wanderlei Silva next, possibly before the end of the year.

But for ‘The Iceman’, the only thing on his mind is the man he’s fighting at UFC 76 on September 22nd – Keith Jardine.

“I’ve got Keith in front of me, I’m gonna take care of that first and then we’ll figure out what they want to do,” said Liddell during a media teleconference Thursday. “I’ll fight anybody anytime, so whoever they want me to fight, I’ll fight, but right now, I’m concentrating on Keith.”

As for his loss to Jackson, Liddell continues to show his class by simply admitting that it just wasn’t his night on May 26th, when ‘Rampage’ stopped him in the first round to take his title belt.

“He had a good fight and I didn’t,” said Liddell. “He won the fight. I’m not making any excuses for it and I shouldn’t have been out there if I wasn’t ready to fight. It happened, it’s over, you move forward. There’s no purpose in sitting around dwelling on what happened in the past. Learn from what you did, learn from what you did wrong, but then move forward. It’s not gonna do you any good to keep worrying about what happened last time.”

And like the competitor he is, he wanted to fight again as soon as possible – the next night.

“I wanted another shot at it the next day,” he chuckled. “But you’ve got to put that away and just get back to training and back to fighting. If you let it bother you, you can run into a long string of problems, so I try to put it behind me and just go back to fighting again. Worrying about what happened last time is not gonna help you this time.”

Even Liddell’s two children have adopted the family philosophy of letting the losses go and getting back on the horse as soon as possible.

“My kids understand it,” said ‘The Iceman’. “They’ve watched me fight since they were little. They know you win some and you lose some. They don’t really care (about the loss), I’m Dad to them.”

Liddell has lost before, getting stopped by Jackson previously in 2003, and also dropping bouts to Randy Couture and Jeremy Horn (which were both avenged). But with this most recent defeat, the question has to be asked – at 37, is Liddell on the downside of a storied career? ‘The Iceman’, who has adjusted his schedule with longtime trainer John Hackleman over the years as he’s gotten older, doesn’t think so.

“It’s not like when you’re 22 and you walk into the gym and you’re warming up just putting your gear on,” he admits. “We’ve refined what we do. I do shorter workouts that are more intense, I work out five days a week, but I’ve been doing that for a while, and I kinda stay in training longer. It used to be six weeks, then eight weeks, and now we usually go three months.”

“I’ve always said that I’ll fight as long as my body lets me,” he continues. “It just depends on how I feel I can perform.”

The fight with the hard-hitting Jardine will be a strong barometer of whether Liddell still has it or not, and stylistically, it’s the perfect matchup because ‘The Iceman’ won’t have to chase ‘The Dean of Mean’ next week in Anaheim.

“I think it’s gonna be a great fight
ad
for the fans,” said Liddell. “If things match up I think we’re both gonna stand there and throw punches at each other, so it should be fun.”

If he wins, don’t expect him to beat his chest and start calling out the rest of the 205-pound division while yelling that he’s back though.

“I’m not trying to make a statement to anybody,” he said. “I’m going out there to try and win a fight. I hope I look good doing it, I hope the fans have a great time watching it - and I don’t think it’s gonna be a problem, I think it’s gonna be an exciting fight – but that’s not something I worry about. If it goes my way, it’s gonna be an exciting fight anyway.”

Frankly, it’s why he does this – to fight. The money and the fame’s nice, but Liddell is one of the few athletes in this game who you actually believe when he says that he would probably fight for free if he had to. Another one of those fighters is former PRIDE champion Wanderlei Silva, who will finally return to the Octagon in December after signing with the organization in August. Of course, all the speculation in the MMA world is that Liddell will be Silva’s first opponent if ‘The Iceman’ gets by Jardine relatively unscathed. It’s a fight years in the making, and it’s so close that fight fans are already debating the merits of both men in this dream matchup. But Liddell refuses to address what is not set in stone, opting instead to welcome Silva into the UFC fold.

“I think it’s great and I’m glad it happened,” said Liddell or Silva’s signing. “He’s a great fighter, he’s been a great fighter for a long time, and I’m glad he’s gonna be fighting somebody here in the UFC.”

Will that somebody be Liddell though?

“That’s something I’m not gonna worry about until after this fight,” he deadpans. And if not Silva, the list of intriguing matchups for Liddell is virtually endless. Who wouldn’t want to see Liddell throw hands with Houston Alexander or Mauricio Rua? Or battle Dan Henderson?

“I still enjoy the sport and this is something to shoot for,” said Liddell of the expanded light heavyweight landscape. “I’m always shooting for doing something better and getting better when I’m fighting, so now there are just more options to fight.”

A third fight with Jackson would certainly generate some heat as well.

“I know what I have to do to try and avenge that loss, so I just go back to working on getting to the point where I get a chance to do that,” said Liddell of a third match with ‘Rampage’, who recently unified the 205-pound title by beating his PRIDE counterpart, Henderson, at UFC 75 in London. “If I keep winning, he’ll have to fight me. If he doesn’t, I’ll cross that bridge when it comes, but it’s not something I worry about now. I’m gonna be around for a long time.”

And most of all, before he goes, Liddell wants to wear UFC gold around his waist one more time.

“It’s important before I’m done to go and get that title back, so I’m coming after it,” he said.

Seems like Chuck is pretty focused. Watch out Keith. The Iceman is going to freeze The Dean of Mean. I don't know how the hell they put Houston Alexanders name in the same category as Liddell, Mauricio, and Henderson.

Curly · 09-14-2007, 07:37 PM

How could one not like Chuck? He is a class act and a very exciting fighter to watch. I dont believe he will ever wear the belt again but I would love it if he did.