© Marc Wickert
www.knucklepit.com
All photos copyright 2004 Zuffa LLC
Photography by Joshua Hedges
On April 2, 2004, one of the most highly anticipated fights in MMA history will take place. In fact fans have been calling for this match-up for so long, UFC 47 has been titled "It's On!"
The two gladiators at the centre of all the attention are light heavyweights Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz. And there is no love lost between the two extraordinary fighters. These gifted athletes are as eager to thrash it out in the Octagon as the millions of UFC fans are eager to view the bout on p-p-v television worldwide.
And it's not just promoters' hype: This grudge match has been building up for a long time. "We had two photo sessions to do the commercial for UFC 47; we were nose-to-nose and we didn't say 'Hi'. We didn't say one word to each other. We were nose-to-nose when they did the photo shoot for the poster and for when they did the video shoot another time. We were there for maybe an hour each time and we didn't say one word to each other," says Liddell.
Although Chuck Liddell is recognized as being one of the best strikers in MMA, his ground skills should not be underestimated. Chuck wrestled at San Marcos High School in Santa Barbara for four years, and was appointed captain of the school wrestling team. He has also fine-tuned his submission skills under the guidance of renowned BJJ instructor John Lewis.
"I've been working with John Lewis of the J-Sect Jiu Jitsu Academy in Las Vegas for almost six years now. And I've been doing some work with a couple of guys from Carlson Gracie as well."
However it was Chuck's striking prowess that drew him acclaim as one of the most street-effective fighters in MMA. His Muay Thai skills earned him heavyweight titles in USMPA (an American Thai boxing association) and WKA (World Kickboxing Association) and two national kickboxing belts. For Chuck's toe-to-toe training he has remained with The Pit's John Hackleman as his kickboxing instructor.
For Liddell's battle with Ortiz, Chuck believes Tito will want the fight to be a grappling match. "I guarantee Tito will want to take it to the ground. I will be happy if Tito decides to actually stand with me for a little bit, but I don't see him doing anything but trying to take it down. And if he does stand for a few seconds, as soon as I hit him once so hard -even if it's just on the arm – he's going to want to go back to just shooting, trying to take me down. He's already afraid of my power from when he trained with me. He's a tough fighter, but he's afraid to get hit."
To counter this projection of Tito's game plan, Chuck Liddell is a stand-up fighter who has a reputation for being able to defend against takedowns. He demonstrated these skills against Paul Jones (UFC 22: There Can Only Be One Champion), Jeff Monson (UFC 29: Defense Of The Belts) and Murilo Bustamante (UFC 33: Victory In Vegas). At UFC 31: Locked And Loaded, Liddell KO'd Hammer House wrestler and former UFC Heavyweight Champion Kevin Randleman in a clinch during an attempted takedown.
"Tito will probably look at my fight with Randy Couture and try to imitate it, but Tito's fear of being hit will keep him from being able to do that. The thing that Randy has going for him is the fact that he is not afraid to get hit. And Randy is a better wrestler than Tito, as he proved when they fought."
In preparation for Liddell's fight against Randy Couture, it appeared Chuck was focusing more on later fighting Tito. Before Chuck's bout with Quinton Jackson, Liddell seemed more focused on fighting Vanderlei Silva. For Chuck's meeting with Tito on April 2nd Liddell will be training purely to defeat Tito Ortiz.
"Above anybody else I want to beat Tito. He's been mouthing off about me for a long time and I'm ready to shut him up. More than anything I want to beat him. And he will be an easier fight for me than Randy was, because Randy is a much better wrestler than Tito."
Chuck says Tito's claim that he and Chuck were good friends, and that that was why they hadn't fought in the past is just an excuse for Tito not to face Chuck in the Octagon. "He used that to keep from fighting me. We were never good friends. I mean, I used to like the guy, but we just trained together. I've trained with a lot of guys. I trained with him about 10 times, total. And I never did anything outside fighting business with him.
"I mean, I stayed at his house a couple of times when we trained together, but even then, I brought a friend of mine with me. And my friend and I hung out at Tito's house, and we'd eat dinner and Tito would go up to his room and do stuff on his computer, while my friend and I would sit in the living room and watch TV or go out and do something together. We didn't even hang out then. It was business. Any fighters I know, when I see them outside of fighting, I hang out with them: they're cool. I think most fighters in general are good guys. So I can hang out with them, but that doesn't make us close friends, and that doesn't mean I can't fight them."
At UFC 371/2 Chuck Liddell fought Vitor Belfort on June 22, 2002, to determine the number one contender for UFC's Light Heavyweight Title. Liddell won by unanimous decision. And Chuck would be happy to face Vitor again: anytime.
"That was at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. I think it would be an exciting fight again too. Both of us will stand there and hit each other, we'll both do a little striking and a little wrestling. It was an exciting fight the first time and it was really close. It could have gone either way until the last round when I dropped him with the right hand. That kind of sealed it for me. I thought I was winning at the time, but I think that just sealed it for me."
Further down the road, Chuck has his sights set on a match with Vandelei Silva, and says he can't understand why organizers haven't put that fight together already. He believes it would be a PRIDE type of fight with both men standing toe-to-toe and slugging it out.
"We'd just stand in front of each other and pound each other until one of us fell down. I'm pretty sure it would only take place in Japan. I don't see PRIDE….I have a better chance of UFC letting me go over there than PRIDE letting him come over here."
UFC President Dana White mentioned in his article at www.knucklepit.com that Liddell has a huge following in Japan, recalling how Chuck visited a shopping mall there and security had to whisk Chuck away in a car to avoid a riot by fans. The cool Liddell, known as The Iceman, confirms the story, calmly stating, "Yeah, they like my fighting style over there."
In order to keep up his enormous striking power and maintain a high fitness level, Chuck does circuit training to combine his stamina workouts with his strength training, so the two forms of exercise don't conflict.
"I have a strength and conditioning coach who puts that all together, and he's really careful with what I do. But a lot of the time I'll combine it, like I'll do say five sets of squats for around 6-10 reps. Then I go from there with everything else on that day being part of a circuit, where I'll do three lifts, then I'll run out on a mat and do sprints, sprawls and a bunch of other cardio exercises. I'll then come back and lift again, and repeat the circuit."
Chuck says that, as his training gets closer to a fight, he'll break the circuits down into rounds of about five or six minutes. He then takes a one-minute break between circuits to simulate his training with the upcoming fight: getting used to the round structure and getting used to the one-minute rest.
"I aim for high-repetition, explosive lifting, with the goal being to have the capacity to explode powerfully over an extended period of time. Doing a 1-rep max is not going to do much for me. I need to have explosive power for 15 or 20 minutes."
While Chuck Liddell is the centre of attention in the Octagon, in his youth Chuck played a small part in the movie The Postman Always Rings Twice, starring Jack Nicholson. "I was an extra in that. Everyone thought it was funny to put that in there (Extended Bio www.ufc.tv). I was a kid of eleven years at the time. I was a boy scout in the movie, and you can see me playing with the register or something when Jack Nicholson kicks me out from behind the counter."
Another movie Liddell worked on was Cradle to the Grave. But Chuck says he's never had aspirations to be an actor, however if any cameo roles came up, he'd do anything to help promote the sport of Mixed Martial Arts.
And Chuck Liddell's prediction for UFC 47?
"I'm planning on knocking Tito out. If he tries to stand with me, I'll knock him out in the first round. If he's wrestling, it might take me a little bit, but I'll catch him."
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