Chuck Liddell Announces He’s Coming Out Of Retirement

By
Gregory LaFountain
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The Iceman Wants A Fight With Tito Ortiz At The End of 2018, Also Calls Out Jon Jones

One of the most recognized figures in the history of MMA and one of the fighters responsible for the rise of the UFC announcing Monday that he is coming out of retirement.

Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell was on the MMA Hour and said he is looking for a third fight against former foe Tito Ortiz.  The 48-year-old Liddell is hoping to get a deal with Oscar de la Hoya to help promote the fight under Golden Boy’s potential move to MMA.

Photo: AP Photo/Marlene Karas

Liddell did add that the deal isn’t final with Golden Boy yet, but the tentative plans are for the him or Ortiz (19-12-1) to square off in November 2018.

Liddell telling MMAFighting’s Ariel Helwani the reasons why he wants to fight again.  The video can be seen via MMAFighting’s Twitter.

“I miss it.  I never stopped missing it.  And I kinda hadn’t really thought about it much.  And then when he brought it up and we started getting going, and I started training and I started doing stuff again, getting ready to try and take this on, it made me go, ‘You know what, what if he pulls out?  Am I not going to fight?  Am I going to do all of this and not fight?’  Oh no, we had to have somebody backing up, and if it doesn’t work out with him, I’m [still] going to give it a shot.  It’ll be somebody else, one of the guys from my past probably, most likely, and we’ll see where I’m at.”
Liddell (21-8), a UFC Hall of Famer, defended the light heavyweight championship four times before losing it to Rampage Jackson.  Liddell won only one of his final six fights in the UFC, with four of those losses coming via knockout.
Photo: AP Photo/Eric Jamison
Liddell retired in 2010 after his knockout loss to Rich Franklin, who had broken his arm in the fight, but was still able to knockout the former light heavyweight champ in the first round.
UFC President Dana White pushed Liddell into retirement, citing concerns for Liddell’s health.  If White isn’t supportive of Liddell’s comeback, he doesn’t worry about what his former boss has to say.
“With all due respect, yeah, leave it alone.  Leave me alone,” Liddell said.  “You promised something to me for a long time and it’s gone.  But it’s not even that.  I want to fight.  I miss everything.  Everyone always asks me, ‘Hey man, this must be a lot better than fighting?’  No, no, I still – that was my favorite thing.  My wife asks me, ‘How do you like doing that?’  My wife asks me that all the time.  I still miss it.  I miss everything.  I miss cutting weight.  I miss everything that goes with it, everything, the good, the bad.  It’s all of it.  I mean, I miss hanging out at the gym, going and working out every day.  It’s fun to me.”
Liddell has been training in the gym and says he plans on making defensive adjustments to his style, so he won’t have fights end like his last few did.
“The Iceman” fought and defeated Ortiz twice in the UFC.  A third fight was scheduled to take place between the two in the UFC, but Ortiz was forced to pull out due to injury.  Ortiz announced he retired last year, but said on Twitter earlier this month that he is coming out of retirement to fight Liddell for a third time.
Liddell added one more high-profile name he would like to fight, Jon Jones.
Photo: John Locher/AP

“In my mind, I’d like to fight two good warm-up fights then I’d like a shot at Jon Jones.  I’m serious I’d like a shot at him, but we’ll see.  I think style wise, in my prime, I would have matched up with him perfect.  Right now, I don’t know but I would like to take a shot at it.”

Jones responded in a series of tweets to Liddell’s challenge.

By the looks of it, Jones isn’t taking the challenge too seriously.

 

 

Gregory LaFountain
Greg LaFountain is from a small town in upstate New York called Peru. After graduating high school, Greg enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, serving his country for four years. After the Marines, Greg went to Pensacola State College where he got his Associate’s Degree in Criminal Justice. He then moved to Tampa and enrolled at the University of South Florida where he earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Mass Communications. Since graduating from USF, Greg interned with Bucs Blitz, covering the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Greg joined Genesis in the fall of 2016, covering Florida State Football, the NFL and the UFC.

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