Chuck Liddell
|
|
Charles David Liddell was born on December 17, 1969 in Santa Barbara, California. He is known throughout the MIxed Martial Arts world as "The Iceman." He currently fights in the Ultimate Fighting Championship where he is the Light-Heavyweight Champion. Primarily a very heavy handed striker with Mike Tyson like power, Chuck Liddell prides himself on the wrestling skills he garnered at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. In spite of his excellent wrestling skills the Iceman prefers to stand and strike. He rarely shoots at his opponents and is not afraid to take one to land one, because once he lands, he usually wins. Chuck Liddell is part of the Pitfight team and often uses the music of Minnesota metal band American Head Charge when he walks to the ring or cage.
Chuck Liddell entered the world of Mixed Martial Arts in a 1998 journey that began at UFC 17. His next UFC appearance turned out to be a loss to Jeremy Horn at UFC 19 where he was submitted by means of an arm triangle. The Iceman went on a four year winning streak through the UFC, IFC, & Pride where he bested the likes of Jeff Monson, Kevin Randelman, Guy Mezger, Muril Bustamante, and a defining victory against Vitor Belfort which pushed him into the upper echelon of fighters. His bubble was temporarily burst when he ran into "The Natural" Randy Couture. The fighter who appears to have found the fountain of youth was near fourty years old when he stopped the Iceman with a series of punches to the head in the third round of their UFC 43 bout. He secured a victory over Alistair Overeem in a Pride event but was soon after stopped in the second round by the highly skilled Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. Chuck jumped right back into the fire and took on the controversial Huntington Beach Bad Boy, Tito Ortiz in a highly anticipated fight. Both men trained at the Pitfight Club and tempers flared during the build up which culminated on April 2nd in 2004 where The Iceman froze The Bad Boy at 38 seconds of the second round in UFC 47. Liddell was chosen as one of two coaches on the inaugural season of the UFC's reality TV show The Ultimate Fighter on Spike TV. His rival, UFC Light Heavyweight champ Randy Couture was the opposing coach.
The series was a success and is now in its third season. The show which spawned winners Forest Griffin and Diego Sanchez served as the lead in to Couture Liddell II and the eventual rubber match - both dominated by Liddell. Chuck also avenged an early career loss to Jeremy Horn along the way at UFC 54. He is currently part of a mixed martial arts show being shopped to various cable networks "Who's The Baddest" hosted by Ice-T. In his most recent bout, Chuck Liddell stopped rival Tito Ortiz for the second time at 3:59 in the 3rd round. Ray Mardo is a former freestyle wrestler. The Austin Film Festival honored writer now spends his days as the webmaster of several websites about ultimate fighting championship and mixed martial arts, extreme championship wrestling, world championship wrestling, who is the coolest guy on the planet, and DJ training. Chuck Liddell Official Site |