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By: Bill Thompson
This week I figured I’d delve into a big match-up that was been announced for the future. Nothing elaborate, but I will give a few thoughts into the fight, the impact it will have on the individual fighters, and their futures in the light heavyweight division. Without further ado, let’s take a look ahead
Chuck Liddell vs. Mauricio Rua
This match-up was just announced for UFC 85, and it is a fight a few years in the making. As soon as Mauricio “Shogun” Rua went on his tear through the Pride middleweight, our version of light heavyweight, grand prix in 2005 his name skyrocketed to the top of the light heavyweight ranks. Also around this time Chuck Liddell was in the middle of running through Jeremy Horn, Tito Ortiz, Randy Couture, and Renato Sobral to cement himself at the top of the light heavyweight mountain. In some places the argument over whether Rua was number one or Liddell was number one boiled down to the infantile “Pride is better than the UFC/UFC is better than Pride” line of thinking. However in most intelligent conversations there wasn’t a clear cut answer to the question because both men had proven themselves to be among the best in the sport. The only clear way to solve the debate was for the two men to square off, something not thought possible until the day that Pride was bought out by Zuffa, parent company of UFC. Unfortunately for both men their careers did not continue down the dominant path. Liddell was knocked out by Quinton Jackson and decisioned by Keith Jardine in consecutive fights, while Shogun was thoroughly manhandled and eventually choked out by Forrest Griffin in his one and only UFC bout to date. Liddell managed to bounce back from his setbacks with a decision win over another top light heavyweight in Wanderlei Silva. Then came the announcement this past week that these two would finally be facing off, a few years and fights too late, but a marquee match-up none the less.
There are two different Shogun’s, the winning Shogun that takes the fight to the ground. And the losing Shogun, the one that keeps fights standing under the false assumption that he is a world class striker, People became enamored with Shogun’s striking after his fights against the aforementioned Jackson and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, and this was a misnomer. Shogun’s strength lies not in his striking but rather in his stout ground game. Once on the ground Shogun has an incredibly slick submission game as well as some top notch ground and pound and good positional wrestling. When he takes fights to the ground he really shines, but when he stays standing his lack of actual striking has been exposed over the past few years. He throws vicious knees from in the clinch, but he can’t deal with someone throwing a jab in his face, or someone that knows how to mix up their strikes with good head movement and foot movement. This was evident in his fights against Cyrill Diabete, Kazuhiro Nakamura, and Forrest Griffin where he was being outstruck rather handedly and only managed to make any head way in the fight once he got the fight to the ground. If Shogun is too way this fight then he must get the fight to the ground, because once there the fight would be in his domain.
Chuck Liddell has made his career by sticking with his bread and butter, knocking people out. Liddell’s never been the best when it comes to technical striking, but he has firepower in his hands and the sprawl to keep the fight standing. For the longest time that was all Liddell needed to get by. He would use his sprawl to keep the fight standing and use his jab and array of looping rights to batter his opponent until he could hit that the big knockout blow. Liddell found out very early in his career thanks to Jeremy Horn that going to the ground would not be in his best interests. All it took was one incident of being choked unconscious to convince Liddell that the ground was not a place he wanted to be. This unfortunately let to Chuck becoming very one dimensional, the few times after that when he would be placed on the ground he was completely lost and that fear of going to the ground appears to have stunted his growth as an MMA fighter somewhat. Still, there appears to be hope that even at this late stage in his career Liddell has figured out how to once again implement the ground game into his fighting style. Against Silva the striking wasn’t always going Liddell’s way and his solution to this was to score a few takedowns to give himself a breather and to score some points with the judges. As much as I like that change in style for Liddell I don’t think it would be a wise ploy in any way against Shogun.
This fight all hinges on one factor, can Liddell keep the fight standing or will Shogun get the fight to the ground. Unlike Wanderlei Silva, Shogun has shown to not be a paper black belt. His ground skills are legit, he doesn’t fear going to the ground and when on the ground he looks like a killer. Chuck Liddell knows this and from his end this should lead to a complete avoidance of the ground. His takedowns against Silva were a nice change of pace, but in that fight he didn’t have to worry about much on the ground. Against Shogun, Liddell would have a lot to worry about on the ground, and not as much to worry about standing. That is where Shogun will win or lose the fight. If Shogun tries and tries to get the fight to the ground and he can’t then he will most likely be losing this contest. However, if Shogun tries to stand and trade with Liddell then he will be losing the contest, but much earlier and through bad game planning. The question that also must be addressed is whether or not the Griffin fight has helped show Shogun how to fight in the cage once again. Liddell is a master at using the cage to corner his opponent, and if Shogun has yet to reacquaint himself with fighting in the cage then he could be in for a short night.
Once this fight is over a lot of issues in the light heavyweight division will be cleared up. If Liddell comes away the victor then this combined with his victory over Wanderlei Silva will put him back into the title picture once again. This is a must win for Liddell, because he is advancing in age and should he lose he will be set back far enough that he may never get another crack at the title. For Shogun this is an important fight, but it isn’t quite on the same level of importance as it is for Liddell. Should Shogun win the he will have firmly established himself as a player in the UFC’s light heavyweight division. This win would propel him back to the upper ranks of the division and all but erase the Griffin loss from the collective memory of the fan base. However, if Shogun loses this could prove to be a devastating loss, especially if he is knocked out in quick fashion. That will make two fights in the UFC for Shogun. Two fights against top level competition, and two fights against big fan favorites. If he loses this will leave the fans of the UFC with the image of Shogun as the guy that can’t beat any of the top names. It would take a long while for Shogun to recover from that image and be a player in the division anytime soon.
This is a big time fight, one of the biggest the UFC has put on in the light heavyweight division in sometime. Both fighters have a lot invested in this fight as does the UFC. The fans should have a lot invested in this fight as well. Both have their fair number of fans and both have the potential to be in big title fights down the line. This fight is truly a win-win for the sport and the fans. The only people that have anything to lose are the fighters, and all that we as fans can hope for is that they don’t hold anything back in the fight because of this.