Posted by Bill Thompson on 25th May 2008
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Wanderlei Silva knocks out Keith Jardine in under a minute. Goran Reljic knocks out Wilson Gouveia after a round and a half of sloppily striking around the cage. Sure, there were other light heavyweight fights on the card last night, and fights from other divisions that were better, but these two fights helped to spiral a division even further out of control. How is it possible for one division to have no idea where to go next, let’s take a look at some of the fighters and figure out why,
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Posted in Bill Thompson, Chuck Liddell, Forrest Griffin, Light Heavyweights, Lyoto Machida, Quinton Rampage Jackson, Rashad Evans, UFC, Wanderlei Silva | No Comments »
Posted by Iain Liddle on 17th March 2008
By Iain Liddle
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If you’ll allow me to be self-indulgent then I’ll use this week’s entry to throw out a question that has been niggling away at me of late.
March has already produced another installment in two great boxing rivalries. On March 1st Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez stepped into the ring together for the third time. They were tied at 1-1 in their rivalry having fought twice before in the previous thirteen months and both had been nominated for ‘Fight of the year’ for 2007. In fact, most boxing writers who I respect are unanimous in the view that the second encounter was the best to have taken place last year, despite Kelly Pavlik vs Jermain Taylor eventually taking the official boxing writer’s award.
As they prepared to lace up the gloves one more time, fan and promoter expectations were high. Gary Shaw had been proclaiming this fight as the antidote to February’s Klitschko-Ibraghimov snoozefest before it had even taken place. Showtime placed both of the preceding bouts on their website to justify the hype and show fans just how good the sport can be and will be again. It never seemed to cross anyone’s mind that the two Mexicans may disappoint us.
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Posted in Boxing, Chuck Liddell, Iain Liddle, MMA, Randy Couture | No Comments »
Posted by Bill Thompson on 10th February 2008
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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.
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Posted in Bill Thompson, Chuck Liddell, Mauricio Rua, UFC | No Comments »
Posted by Lee Casebolt on 6th February 2008
By Lee CaseboltÂ
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Welcome back to the Total MMA Book Club. Today we take a look at the latest MMA literary offering, a new autobiography by former Light Heavyweight champ Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell, appropriately titled Iceman: My Fighting Life. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Book Reviews, Chuck Liddell, Lee Casebolt | No Comments »
