
(As long as he still has his hearing, he’ll always have a puncher’s chance. Props to AmidaHidan.)
Like Kendall Grove before him, UFC president Dana White has made it clear that Chuck Liddell‘s job might be on the line if he doesn’t step up his game. The Iceman, who has lost three of his last four fights, takes on Mauricio "Shogun" Rua at UFC 97 (April 18th, Montreal) and simply winning might not be enough. As White explains to the Telegraph-Journal:
We assumed that because of his drawing power and history with the company, Liddell would be able to fight in the UFC for as long as he wanted to. But it sounds like Dana is genuinely concerned for Chuck’s health. His reaction time is slowing, and rival fighters have figured out the increasingly predictable holes in his standup game. That only translates to more brain-rattling KO losses in the future.
Luckily, Mauricio Rua is as good a comeback opponent as any. If Shogun shows up in the kind of piss-poor shape he was in for the Mark Coleman fight in January, Liddell has a great chance of coming out on top, and maybe even "dazzling" his boss with a dramatic knockout. And if that happens, it’ll be interesting to see if Rua is given a similar "win big or get lost" ultimatum for his next fight — or if he’s simply fired on the spot.
The full 12-fight lineup for UFC 97 was confirmed on Friday; you can check it out after the jump.
MAIN CARD
Anderson Silva vs. Thales Leites (for middleweight championship)
Chuck Liddell vs. Mauricio Rua (LHW)
Krzysztof Soszynski vs. Brian Stann (LHW)
Cheick Kongo vs. Antoni Hardonk (HW)
Steve Cantwell vs. Luis Cane (LHW)
PRELIMINARY CARD
Denis Kang vs. Xavier Foupa-Pokam
Eliot Marshall vs. Mike Ciesnolevicz
Nate Quarry vs. Jason MacDonald
David Loiseau vs. Ed Herman
Mark Bocek vs. David Bielkheden
Ryo Chonan vs. TJ Grant
Sam Stout vs. Matt Wiman








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commentsI fucking agree.
@ my fight wiffa cheeto
i think you mostly stated the obvious there, but i do like what you said about chuck at middleweight. i would like to see that. i don't think lidell can hang with the best light heavyweights right now. but at middleweight there are a lot of interesting matchups for him. hendo, franklin, bisping, mardquardt, maia.
I thought that guy died or retired or something
Steve Cantwell is fighthing!!! The fuckin Robot!
You dudes remember this guy onUFC FIGHT NIGHT "fight for the troops"!? This dude has surgical hands with amazing jui jitsu. He beat that black dude Al Razak by punching his face in on foot then benidng the dudes arm 180 degrees in the wrong way. Oh and he's all of what..21, or 22? Fuckin mad man this guy is.
Steve Cantwell vs Luis Cane = pure awsomness
Fuck a Chuck vs Shogun...they can both beat each others balls like a pinyata ayiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiy
Can you go ahead and paraphrase all that. I'm at work and don't have time to peruse 8 paragraphs of blah blah blah. It's for the common good. Thanks
Strikeforce isn't going to fizzle out anytime soon, I hope at least. The reason Dana & Co. bought up PRIDE is because at the time, PRIDE had some of the greatest fighters in the world (even if we've come to realize they were all on gear at some point). Dana wanted those big names to cement UFC's roster. The reason Dana hated and made a point and example out of EliteXC was because of the Shaw's promotional tactics. Their huffing and puffing and shady business practices pissed off Dana and eventually sank the promotion all together. I mean they brought in some new fans by marking hard on ol' "I love the city of Japan" Kevin Ferguson and hopefully some of those fans became educated on the sport and are still around after realizing their douche of a hero, Mr. Slice, while "Street Certified" he wasn't exactly "MMA Certified."
Strikeforce has a long way to go before it promotes PPV's. The only place I see them threatening UFC or even have them by the balls a lil bit is with their place on NBC/CBS and with Premium Showtime.
UFC was to work a deal out with HBO, which would be huge, just UFC isn't going to give up their rights to programming that easily. Spike has done them well enough for now. They don't need old time TV execs telling them what they can and can't do.
Can you actually see Dana bowing down to some network dude? The only people he would do that to have the last name Fertitta.
As for Chuck in Strikeforce, I can't see how it hurts UFC as a whole that much. They lose one of the most recognizable stars in MMA in the twilight of his career. They can't put on a PPV with just Chuck and no one awesome for him to fight. Unless they put him against Mr. Ferguson just for the draw. Where if you though Seth "I swear I'm not Gay" Petruzelli's foppish jab knocked Kevin silly, what do you think a Chuck Overhand right would do?
Where and who does Chuck have to fight in UFC now? Stay at LHW? Most of the LHW's that are title threats would murder him, yes he always has a puncher's chance as do all fighters, but where has his development been over the years? NOWHERE. He's swimming with sharks. He drops to MW like Wandy? Then he has a war with Wandy again... I can see him fighting Hendo, two LEGENDS! Rich Franklin. He could beat up Bisping (which would make me happy). He could sprawl like balls so Maia wouldn't make him tap somehow, Marquart, and of course... Superfight with Anderson Silva.
I was gonna say there is nothing for him at Middleweight but actually... I think that would be best for him. He'd be a big ass middleweight. Now he's just gotta put down the beers.
If Joe Silva is gonna keep pitting formerly dominant but rapidly fading punching bags like Liddel vs Rua, Coleman vs Rua, Liddel vs Vanderlei, Hughes vs Serra, etc. then he should just turn UFC 100 into a big steel cage ladder match for all the OGs who want to enter and then just keep the one dude who makes it out and bid all the rest a fond farewell as they limp off into the sunset. Much respect to these warriors, but Dana is right. It was a privelege to watch them in their prime, but now all I keep thinking is that I don't want to see my MMA heroes winding up like Mohammed Ali.
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