retirement

(15% off that creepy Chuck cut-out?  Why, I'd be losing money if I didn't buy it!)

Subtlety has never been something the UFC does particularly well, so I suppose it’s only fitting that they approach Chuck Liddell’s forced retirement with the same lack of sensitivity and tact.  According to an email sent out by the UFC earlier today, just about everything in the UFC store with the words “Chuck” or “Liddell” or “Iceman” on it is hitting the clearance rack.  Consider it their way of saying, ‘Thanks for the memories, Chuck.  Now help us move all your shit into storage so we can make room for the new line of Amir Sadollah baby tees.’ 

Is it a little cold-hearted?  Yeah, but that’s life in the UFC.  One day you’re on top of the world, and the next they’re giving away your signature tank tops to bewildered villagers in Africa.

ATT boxing coach Howard Davis Jr. talks Chuck Liddells retireme - Watch more Funny Videos

American Top Team boxing coach and Olympic gold medalist Howard Davis Jr. spoke with me about his work with Chuck Liddell prior to his UFC 97 loss against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.  Contrary to what some people believe, Davis said he really did work with Liddell for about two and a half months, and while he didn’t change his style he did try to add a couple tools to Liddell’s game.  Here Davis talks about what Liddell’s recent loss means for his career, and whether he thinks the former UFC champ should call it quits like Dana White is insisting he do.  He also touches on the addictive “drug” of being a world champion fighter, and why he thinks Liddell has seemed more vulnerable in recent bouts – and it’s not because he’s getting old.

Rashad Evans may be the UFC light heavyweight champ, but the title doesn’t seem to have gone to his head.  Talking with him last week he mentioned that it’s both humbling and sobering to be at a point in his career where he’s the headlining attraction on a card with legendary UFC fighters he came up watching.

“Seeing a guy like Matt Hughes, it makes me kind of wonder, how did I get to be headlining over Matt Hughes on a UFC card?  I mean, Matt Hughes?  It’s Matt Hughes, man.  It just makes you really stop and think.”

(When he told her it was time to retire and give up the game for good, a tearful Paris Hilton told Dana: "But I am the game!" Only then did he fully understand the devils of fame and the ransom they demand. True story.)

- UFC president Dana White talked with Inside Fighting about the disappointing main event at UFC 97, and he also reiterated his commitment to keeping Chuck Liddell firmly in retirement, saying, “Believe me, it will be a fucking war if he tries not to retire, believe me.”  When pressed on other rapidly aging fighters who might need to be nudged into retirement, White admitted that Wanderlei Silva and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira “are right there too and yes, I will pull the trigger on them too.”  Dear God, he’s not going to kill them, is he?!

- A crazy rumor on the information superhighway says that Fedor Emelianenko and Shinya Aoki will square off against each other in a special grappling match at the “Deep M-1 Challenge 3rd Edition” in Japan on April 29th.  I’ll pause a moment and let that one sink in.  If true this would be completely insane, but to deny that we would totally want to see it would be to deny the very curiosity of the spirit that makes us human, and we aren't about to do that.

(Chuck picks the exact wrong time to go to his happy place.)

I know, I know -- more Chuck Liddell stuff.  But remember Howard Davis Jr. saying that Liddell needed to work on avoiding right hands and keeping his eyes open when the punches are coming at him?  Well, Zak over at Watch Kalib Run found this picture of him doing neither, and it really drives Davis Jr.'s point home.  Turns out keeping your eyes open is pretty crucial to avoiding punches, and avoiding punches is pretty crucial to winning fights.

If you want to feel even worse for Liddell, TMZ has a somewhat strange video of his pre-fight warm-up (thanks to OB&I for the tip) and Fightlinker has a gif of Dana White nearly knocking Chuck down with a friendly slap on the back in the Octagon. 

If you want to be reminded that it wasn't always depressing losses and the inevitable ravages of age for "The Iceman," we got you covered after the jump.