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Liddell's mixed martial arts journey began in 1998, when he earned a decision victory over a boxer named Noe Hernandez at UFC 17. From there, he went on to vanquish such opponents as Jose Landi-Jons, Guy Mezger and Kevin Randleman, while having his first career loss via arm-triangle choke to Jeremy Horn. Liddell also fought the skilled Middleweight champion, Murilo Bustamante; although Liddell received the judges' decision, some dispute the victory. Despite his winning streak and strong performances, it wasn't until he beat "The Phenom" Vitor Belfort at UFC 37.5 that he was considered to be among the top echelon within the light heavyweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. By 2002, Liddell was considered a perpetual #1 contender for the light heavyweight title with growing popularity and support from fans. The UFC tried to arrange a title bout with then champion Tito Ortiz but Ortiz kept citing scheduling conflicts which frustrated the UFC brass. To force Ortiz's hand, they created an Interim Light Heavyweight Championship and matched Liddell with experienced former heavyweight Randy Couture at UFC 43 for that title. This was considered Chuck's toughest fight yet, with Couture and was, as evident with Couture's being able to neutralize Chuck's trademark powerful looping hooks with crisp straight punches, and began taking him down at will. Chuck eventually lost via "ground-and-pound" stoppage. After this demoralizing defeat, Liddell went to Japan to compete in the PRIDE 2003 Middleweight Grand Prix tournament as the UFC's representative. (PRIDE's middleweight division is comparable to UFCs light heavyweight division). After defeating Alistair Overeem in the tourney's first round, Liddell was defeated by Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, who is to date Liddell's last and sole unavenged career loss. Returning to the UFC, Chuck once again put himself in contention for a shot at the coveted light heavyweight title, preparing himself for a match against his controversial rival, Tito Ortiz. Both men had trained at the Pitfight Club and experienced a falling-out that would escalate as Ortiz taunted Liddell. The falling out stemmed from Ortiz's unwillingness to give Liddell a title fight, even though Liddell was clearly one of the top contenders in the UFC. Eventually, after Ortiz lost the title to Randy Couture, the two clashed in a highly anticipated fight at UFC 47 April 2nd, 2004 in Las Vegas, Nevada. After most of the first round was spent feeling each other out Liddell threw a few punches and a kick which was blocked by Ortiz with Tito slapping himself on the head stating that he wanted more and when the round ended, Tito pushed John McCarthy out of his way into Chuck and yelled while Chuck exchanged some words. Shortly after the second round started, Liddell poked Tito in the eye with his thumb causing Tito to back off into the cage and then Chuck began a flurry of punches which landed in his face, knocking Tito out for the victory. Since UFC 47, the tension between both fighters has been documented throughout the MMA world and media, and a rematch has been scheduled for UFC 66 which is set to take place in December of 2006. In early 2005, Liddell was seen on the inaugural season of The Ultimate Fighter, Spike TV's reality show featuring fighters new to the UFC competing for a UFC contract. Liddell served as coach of Team Liddell, while fellow fighter and then UFC Light Heavyweight champ Randy Couture coached Team Couture. The series was a success for both Spike TV and the UFC. Both of the winners of TUF, Diego Sanchez and Forrest Griffin, were members of Team Liddell, and they have gone onto wide-spread notoriety. Liddell's highly anticipated and deserved rematch with Couture on April 16, 2005 at UFC 52 - a championship bout - ended in victory for Liddell via a first-round knockout. The fight was almost stopped at one point after Liddell's finger contacted Couture's eye, but the doctors permitted the fight to continue. Before that rematch, Chuck was scheduled to defend his new title belt against fellow UFC veteran Jeremy Horn, at UFC 54, a matchup the UFC claimed was demanded by long-time fans of the sport since Horn gave Liddell his first loss. Throughout the bout, Liddell dominated Horn with aggressive punches, causing knockdowns in several rounds. Liddell's defensive wrestling ability, especially his renowned sprawl, stifled the bulk of Horn's offense, which was centered around grappling and submission wrestling. Liddell eventually won the fight via TKO in 2:46 minutes of the fourth round after Horn informed the referee that he couldn't see, avenging his first career loss and defending his championship. On February 4, 2006 at UFC 57, Liddell won, for a second time, a fight against Randy Couture via knockout in Las Vegas, Nevada to retain the Light Heavyweight championship belt. After the fight, Couture announced his retirement from mixed martial arts. His next defense, at UFC 62 on August 26, 2006, Liddell defended his belt against Renato Sobral, who he had defeated nearly 3 years ago, scoring a quick technical knockout victory a mere 95 seconds in the first round starting with a swift uppercut to Sobral. It was announced at UFC 61 in July 2006 that if Liddell beats Sobral, he will fight PRIDE Middleweight (205 lb) Champion, Wanderlei Silva in November at Las Vegas. Since then though, Dana White has said the fight will not be happening, most recently citing Silva's loss to Mirko Filipovic. Liddell's next fight will be December 30th at UFC 66 against Tito Ortiz for the Light Heavyweight championship. source: wikipedia.org GNU Free Documentation License |
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