Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Chuck Liddell Should Not Retire And Head To Strikeforce

Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell has had a great MMA career and many people feel he should retire after losing his last match by knockout to Mauricio "Shogun" Rua at UFC 97. Dana White, the UFC President, is one of the many who has insisted on Liddell retiring.

White is a good friend of Liddell's and does not want his friend to suffer any more punishment inside the Octagon.

I feel that The Iceman still has a few fights left in him, and I hope he does not retire. Lidelll reportedly has one fight left in his UFC contract, and the UFC should grant him that fight instead of trying to force him into premature retirement.

Liddell may be 39 years old and he may have lost four of his last five fights, but his opponents that he lost to were all tough opponents. Not many fighters would be able to pull out a win against Rua, Quinton Jackson, or Rashad Evans. Evans is now the current UFC light heavyweight champion.

Liddell's lone victory in that span of five fights was a great win over Wanderlei Silva.

If Liddell still has the enthusiasm to train hard, I don't see why he should retire.

I think the best scenario for Liddell would be to have one last fight in the UFC and then he should join Strikeforce.

The UFC should let him try to go out in style with a win. Some opponents that could face Liddell in his UFC finale are fighters such as Stephen Bonner, Houston Alexander, Kyle Kingsbury, Krzystof Soszynski, and James Irvin. All of these fighters would probably jump at the chance to fight a legend like The Iceman.

Liddell would have a good shot at a title shot in Strikeforce. There are also a lot of interesting fights that could be possible with Strikeforce. For example, he might be able to fight opponents such as Tito Ortiz, Renato "Babalu' Sobral, and Kevin Randleman again.

I would even like to see a fight between Lidell and former Strikeforce champion, Bobby Southworth. These possible future fights could be main events on not just Showtime, but also on pay-per-view.

I was never a big Liddell fan but he was always entertaining because he always came to fight and had some great knockouts. If he his heathy enough to continue to fight, he should be allowed to fight.

White can insist to everyone that Liddell is done and that he will never fight for another MMA organization, but Liddell is the only one that will determine that. What is Liddell going to do in the UFC if he does not fight? I don't think he will become the newest accountant for the UFC.

Liddell loves to fight and losing to four tough fighters does not mean the man is done. No one will say he is done if he goes on a big win streak.

If Liddell decides to retire, I would like to see him fight one more time and come out victorious. I want his last fight in the UFC Octagon to be a victory. Liddell should leave a winner and fans should not remember him for his last few devastating knockout losses in the cage.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good editorial here - I tend to agree with what you say usually and this is the case once again. Fuck Dana its good to be white!