Issue 171

October 2018

MMA legends, Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz are set for another scrap with both men clearly past their prime. Should it be allowed? Is it a cynical money grab? Can you protect fighters from fighting even if it risks their health and ruins their legacy?

You need to know the context of Charles David “Chuck” Liddell and his impact on mixed martial arts to make a judgment on why his blood-and-guts return as he starts his 50th year in December against a 43-year-old former enemy has divided the fight world.

Liddell versus Tito Ortiz, a trilogy fight more than a decade on, smacks of cynicism.

The promoter, from boxing no less, is trying to call it a legacy fight. The completion of unfinished business. That’s nonsense, pure and simple. It’s just promotional opportunism. A claim of unfinished business that was frankly, wrapped up a long, long time ago.

In reality, it’s a dangerous money fight for two guiding lights, mega-stars from the early days of the UFC, when the fight promotion was akin to the Wild West of sport – when it represented a subculture, which was divisive, and cutting-edge.

These are two fighters, one the classic brawl and sprawl king, the other the tenacious wrestler, way past their sell-by date, who are about to test the waters as we haven’t seen before in MMA. On several levels.

Yes, it stinks in some ways.

It’s a rotten fight that should really be consigned to the trash can, trampled over by any Athletic Commission worth its salt as bad fare, but the papers are getting signed rather than crumpled up and thrown into the office shredder.

Is it right, is it wrong? Will it tarnish the legacy of Liddell, Ortiz, or both? Does it cast a pall over the sport, now flourishing in the mainstream? Opinions certainly vary.

One thing is for certain: if it does happen, many, many people will still watch it.

This is a complex subject, one involving paydays, rewards, and even perhaps, the refusal to accept that a fight career really is over.

And there’s the impact on a fighter’s health. It is no secret in the sport that there are fears that Liddell may be slurring from his many wars, and Ortiz has had so many surgeries to head, neck, knees shoulders and back, he is almost a reconstructed bot. Remember, this isn’t showjumping or golf, ping-pong or veteran athletics.

You can’t play at fight sports, and many will argue that Liddell, in particular, went on far too long in his original career.

Let’s put this in context first, before we hear from many people in the industry: fighters, legends, presenters, and trainers who work with the very highest paid and performing mixed martial artists today.

And get this: arguably the most successful coach in world right now sees no reason for it not to happen, and says their legacies will not be affected. John Hackleman, Liddell’s long-time trainer and pal from ‘The Pit’, their Kempo base, is up for his man fighting.

But there is a current of ill-ease across the media. Not so much cynicism, rather concern for the fighters, their health, a feeling that it might have to be watched peek-a-boo.

This is unusual.

It’s because Liddell is loved and revered. He was the iconic figure who took mixed martial arts into the mainstream of American sports entertainment, led its first real charge around the world.

It’s like watching your older brother or uncle, once the hardest man as far as the eye can see, suddenly seeming vulnerable. Chuck feels like family in MMA.

He had epic wars, he was the scariest fighter on the planet, his career record reads like a Who’s Who of greats from the past 20 years – Randy Couture, Vitor Belfort, Wanderlei Silva, Renato ‘Babalu’ Sobral, Rampage Jackson, a young Alistair Overeem and Ortiz himself.

And he spawned a generation of men sporting mohawks.

He was the Conor McGregor of his day, yet old-school. No frills. There was a sense that he would fight for fun . . . not even as a prizefighter. And for that, he was ‘The Iceman’, the greatest light-heavyweight ever in mixed martial arts.

At his peak, he was brutal, fearless, terrifying. He electrified crowds with his walk-in -- and opponents with that simple, yet “on it”, sprawl and brawl technique.

He crossed into new realms. He went from working security in a bib at the Super Bowl to being a VIP guest of honor at the huge sporting event and being shown on the big screen to universal delight from an adoring public; he was the first MMA fighter on the cover of ESPN magazine.

Fame enveloped him, and he never changed. Late in his fighting career, in 2009, Liddell even went onto the highly popular television series, Dancing With The Stars, a show which had hosted the combat sports stars Floyd Mayweather Jnr and Evander Holyfield.

He fought himself into elite company. He belongs there in history. His is hardly a legacy that could be added to, but as Father Time has shown so often, lights can go out on brilliance with a different story told by the memories which are left for the newest generation. History can become skewed.

Indeed, the same argument might be brought forward about ‘Rampage’ and Wanderlei, well past their best but still picking up checks. They will have their fourth meeting as Bellator launches itself on a new platform in the USA.

It has resonance to Liddell-Ortiz, in a similar way. Yet the big difference is that they have stayed active, and of course, they are younger.

But their time is coming to pull the plug.

Liddell’s star – as an active fighter at least – began to fade some years ago.

Indeed, back in 2009, and due to being a huge star, Liddell was a perennial target for names of the sport.

Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua, for example, now much faded himself, knocked Liddell out brutally in 2009. Just a couple of weeks ago in Hamburg, Shogun himself was smashed out by Anthony Smith. The old fighter fed to a hungry rising lion. It was ugly. There was nothing pretty about seeing a slowed fighter, whose reactions are in decline. That is the fear with Liddell.

Do we really want to see this great figure, almost 49 years old, retired from the sport for eight years, come back against another retired MMA legend in Ortiz, promoted by a very significant name in the boxing industry, just because their trilogy fight failed to materialize many, many years ago?

But it does have legs, and the Liddell and Ortiz trilogy fight is rumbling towards a date and venue.

The only thing that does hang there – and it really is by just a bare thread – is that their TUF series never completed. The trilogy fight scheduled for them never happened. It fell apart mid-series of course.

Nor, though, are we looking at a decisive rubber. Liddell, holds two wins over Ortiz from their glory days in the UFC, back when both combatants truly were the two biggest names in the MMA world. They were meaningful victories too.

There are so many in fight sports, so many who were inspired by Liddell, that they are begging him not to fight. They – and many of the people putting their hands over their eyes – were inspired by the very man they are watching.

Among them, his old pal Dana White, the president of the UFC. He can barely countenance it, let alone look.

Kenny Florian, former four-weight UFC fighter, now on the other side of a desk, his chin bearded and safe and his faculties intact, is unhappy about it. “I myself don’t care to see it,” Florian told.

“They’ve already contributed to high-level MMA. If they want to continue fighting and people want to pay, right on, that’s on them. But do we really want to pay to see those guys fight if they aren’t at their best? My perspective is that people should want to see mixed martial arts performed at the highest level.”

“That is what I would like to see anyway. I believe their best years are way behind them.” But does what is being seen in many quarters as a farce tarnish the image of the MMA? Chris Lytle, the former professional boxer and UFC competitor, told that it does not scuff the sport in any meaningful way.

“I definitely don’t think it tarnishes the sport. If people want to see them fight, do it,” he says. But he also adds: “As far as the legacies, it depends how the fight goes. If they (Liddell/Ortiz) look good, then no (it won’t harm their legacies). If they look terrible, that will be the way many people will always remember them.”

Florian, making another very valid point, insists that this kind of thing rarely happens in other sports, with old heroes hauled back. Truth is, no one actually gets better with age and in fight sports, it actually becomes far more dangerous.

“For example, why would we see old EPL legends way past their prime play football when we have the current EPL to watch some of the best football in the world?,” says Florian.

“If an older fighter is still able to perform at a high level then power to them, but candidly, a promotion shouldn’t act like they’re selling us a first-class meal and give us McDonalds instead.”

“Check out ‘the old guy football league!’ It’s just just like the EPL except there are fewer goals, slower players, players tire more easily and they make mistakes they wouldn’t otherwise make in their prime. No thanks.” Fair enough. Strong point from KenFlo.

The health of Liddell is certainly something that concerns UFC president White. They were friends, and Liddell was the man, the fighter, the standout – the face – who helped White and the Fertitta brothers build a business model and launch a thousand-pay-per-views.

In a sense, White kept the man who wants to continue to be a fighting sheriff in the UFC out of trouble by giving him an office job, an ambassadorial role with the company. But the change of ownership into the hands of Endeavor (IMG/WME) saw that ship sail.

The job ended.

Questions need to be asked: is Liddell going back to fighting, as so many others have, because he is short of money? Will he take the requisite health checks? Will he even, be granted a licence to fight by the Nevada, California, or New York Commissions?

Was it being on the high-profile reality television show Celebrity Big Brother in the United States earlier this year that gave Chuck the appetite to be back in the limelight? Or does that beef with Ortiz still burn brightly?

It was White, famously, who also first spoke about Liddell’s possible retirement in public after he lost to Rashad Evans. That was 10 years ago.

“We have definitely seen the last of Chuck Liddell,” the UFC president told me at the time. That was way back in 2008.

Liddell was efficient, clean, looking for takedowns, and mightily impressive. But there, eleven years ago, rests the best of the best of Liddell.

As White said after the brutal knockout defeat to Evans, he had made “more money than God, and has nothing to prove.” White hoped that Liddell would stay away from his addiction to fighting.

But Liddell did come back after that. He was knocked out. Again. This time by Rich Franklin. In fact, when he did retire in 2010, he had five losses out of six, in four of which he was knocked out.

Right now, White would never contemplate promoting Liddell in a fight. Never. “No, Chuck’s almost 50 years old. I love Chuck Liddell, but 50-year-olds shouldn’t be fighting,” says White.

“I love the guy. I love Chuck Liddell, I love him. As a friend, I don’t think he should fight. And anybody around him who cares about him shouldn’t let him fight either.” There’s White’s plea right there.

Overseeing the Liddell-Ortiz comeback, of course, which complicates it even further, is retired boxing multi-millionaire promoter Oscar de la Hoya, who wishes to flirt with MMA.

He was, of course, involved with Affliction MMA – as was President Donald Trump come to that – and selling Liddell as anything more than a very aged fighter would truly be fake news.

De La Hoya’s move has certainly pulled White out of his man cave to comment on it.

When White was spitting barbs about it. “I hope he’s coming out of retirement to be partners with De La Hoya and not to fight,” said White, making his feelings heard.

“The last thing I want to do is shit on Chuck Liddell, but I asked him to retire 10 years ago for a reason.”

That reason is age. And a vulnerable chin. And slowed reactions. The cynics will say this is just pure opportunism on the part of the promoter, and the promoter will say that people don’t have to buy it if they don’t want to.

But there will be viewers, an audience even including those hoping for a night of nostalgia, just hoping that hero Liddell can pull out the power and find the detonation button one more time before Ortiz lands on the chin and he sleeps, or even takes the fight to the ground. But let’s not kid ourselves.

The cynics and critics are on pretty firm ground. There is no reason for them to fight again. But we will watch it. Because it its Ortiz and Liddell.

As MMA and music writer Chuck Mindenhall put it, when it was first announced by De La Hoya, “This is Cheap Trick performing at the Farmer’s Market”. Spot on. Brilliant artist, horrible location, and light years away from their heyday.

However, delve inside the industry itself, and there are many voices who aren’t vehemently against the fight.

Respected, resonant voices, voices that matter in the sport right now, like Javier Mendez, coach of the “Champ Champ” Daniel Cormier, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Luke Rockhold and Cain Velasquez.

“To me, they all accomplished greatness at one point in their fighting careers, and I feel nothing can take away from their accomplishments.”

“I don’t think it tarnishes their legacies, no,” the San Jose-based chief of American Kickboxing Academy mused, speaking of the likes of Liddell, Ortiz, Jackson and Silva.

Mendez takes another tack. And it is worth bearing in mind. “I look at it like when heavyweight boxer Larry Holmes fought on past his prime. Like George Foreman when he came back ten years after being away. They even got matched up [though the fight never happened]. Everybody knew they were not the best anymore and it was just for entertainment, an event.”

“It might diminish how the sport is seen a little bit from general people watching it [Liddell-Ortiz] for the first time. Or causal fans. But no damage from real fans,” added Mendez.

So maybe it is the casuals, the mainstream that will judge these great warriors differently.

In 2008, I saw Liddell up close when he came into the Telegraph Media Group building in Victoria, London and amongst the suits, shirts and ties, cut a swathe as the seminal underground figure in fight sports.

He was surrounded by colleagues and the man with the mohawk took in the vast news rooms, asked questions and delighted all, dressed in shorts and flip-flops, with his toenails painted green. So comfortable. More comfortable than he will now be in the ring, or the Octagon.

The howling had ended by 2008, and the pose on the cover of the now defunct UFC Magazine wearing a T-shirt of himself peeing on the word “Ortiz” was well in past. Many of the cynics, to be fair, care about Liddell. For those in the thirties – or older – he really was very special, but his time, and his empire have declined.

Liddell has refused to accept that it is all over.

Not surprisingly, BJ Penn sides with Mendez and other fighters. He sees no reason not for them to fight. But we might have expected that from a fighter who refused to give up the ghost, battling on like the Hawaiian warrior he is, seemingly even reckless with his own well-being.

What I would say, though, is that Penn’s legacy has not diminished. Attending an MMA event at which he was at recently in Temecula, California, there was not a fan in the house who did not chase him for a selfie or a beg for a moment to give adulation to a real folk hero.

And yet Penn went on. And on. And On. On he went against Nick Diaz, Frankie Edgar, Rory MacDonald upright, timing gone, vulnerable, beaten up, as we averted our eyes from one of the greats, so finished, so diminished.

“You are always a warrior and that never leaves you,” says the 39-year-old.

“I’m happy for them,” said the former two-weight UFC champion. Penn, of course, went 1-5-1 in seven fights up to 2014, then made his own comeback in 2017, when he was hammered by the youngster Jair Rodriguez and then ex-champ Edgar for a third time, signaling the red light that it was all over for him. For now, at least.

“If people come out and order the fight, that means people wanted to watch it, and they’ll make some money,” said Penn, who plans to watch the event. “So good for both of them. And I don’t know who’s going to win, though, so don’t ask.”

There is a well-worn expression, applicable in this situation, that fighters, natural fighters, whose instinct it is to challenge themselves in this way for our entertainment, do at times, need saving from themselves. Perhaps Liddell, Ortiz and others contemplating a belated return to the Octagon need to be viewed in this context.

Maybe it matters not who wins, but that they both just get through this, faculties intact, for one last hurrah. And like Penn, they need saving from themselves, as all real warriors do...