Saturday, January 1, 2011

Put It on Ice: Chuck Liddell Retires from In-Ring Competition

Mixed Martial Arts has lost one its icons, as Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell officially announced his retirement as an active fighter, and is beginning a transition into his new role with the UFC as the executive VP of business development.

The former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion will serve as one of the company's top six or seven officials in the position.

“Chuck is a part of this management team here, and this isn’t some [expletive] PR job we’ve given him. He’s diving into it full-time. He’s going to do serious stuff, and I can’t think of anybody who is a better partner to add than Chuck. Just like he was as a fighter, he’s going to be phenomenal in this next stage.”

"Definitely not, but if I'm going to be a vice-president of something, have a real job, this is the one I want," Liddell said.

The 41-year-old called it a career at Wednesday's UFC 125 pre-fight press conference at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. After coming over from kickboxing, Liddell debuted in 1998 at UFC 17, where he beat Noe Hernandez in Mobile, Ala.

He finished his UFC career with a 21-8 record and 13 knockouts. The slugger held the UFC Light Heavyweight belt for most of 2005 and 2006.

"Most of all, I want to thank my fans and my family. I love the sport, and I'm excited to go into a new stage in my life and keep promoting the best sport in the world, the sport I love."

Many of the newer UFC fans won't be able to fully grasp what Liddell has accomplished for the UFC. While President Dana White is the brains behind the MMA juggernaut, Liddell almost single-handedly put UFC on the map.

When White, along with Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, completed their purchase of the company nearly 10 years ago, Liddell was one of its three most popular fighters, along with Randy Couture and Tito Ortiz.

In fact, his fight against Ortiz and two more against Couture helped pull in 1.73 million buys. At UFC 66, with the help of Liddell, UFC eclipsed the 1 million buys mark.

In his prime, The Iceman was nearly impossible to take to the ground, had a rock-hard chin and was one of the fiercest, strongest punchers in the sport.

He knocked out Couture (who is beginning to contemplate retirement at age 47) to win the UFC lightweight title at UFC 52 on April 16, 2005.

He was part of the first UFC card to sell more than a million buys on PPV, hitting 1.05 million for his rematch with Ortiz at UFC 66.

Unfortunately, that was the beginning of the end for The Iceman, as he lost five of his last six fights, getting KO'd in four of them.

While his inner fighter kept telling him to fight, White, one of his closest friends, begged him to quit before he compromised his health in the octagon.

“I’ve done this all my life and it’s all I know, competing. I’ve never been out of season. I’ve gone from karate to wrestling to football, and I was always competing all the way through.

It’s hard to make that decision to retire. I talked to my family, I talked to my coaches, John [Hackleman], about it.

Eventually, Liddell wisely succumbed to retirement.

“I’m just not able to put it together anymore. I still compete with everybody in the gym, but I’m not able to put it together out there anymore. I don’t know whether it’s time or what it is, but I can’t take a shot very well anymore.

"If that’s what it is, fine. I have kids and I want to play with them and love them for the rest of my life. There are other things to do. This is something that I can be excited about.”

“I would liked to have gone out on a winning streak, but I don’t think I would have left if I had been winning. I would have wanted to fight one more time to get a win, and if I won then, I would have just wanted to fight again. It’s one of those things.”

Between fights, Liddell would travel world-wide alongside White in order to promote the sport. Liddell and his trademark Mohawk quickly became a marketable brand, and his image was becoming global.

His new role with the UFC will allow him to put his undivided heart and soul, something he did for every fight, into continuing to expand the company.

“When I first started in this sport, the end of the rainbow was probably a $50,000 check for a fight. I have sponsors pay me more than that to wear a shirt now. It’s grown so much. ‘The Ultimate Fighter,’ we didn’t know what that was going to do. It was a last-ditch effort save it.

"They were $40-something million in the hole, and the first couple of weeks they couldn’t even sell advertising...they got the ratings back, and it was like, ‘Wow, people do like the sport.’

"I always thought the sport would get here some day, but I would be lying if I said I thought it would get here this fast.”

While the UFC has expanded exponentially over the years, The Iceman has pushed it far ahead of where it would have been without him.

Liddell's significance in the company and importance to its growth is as monumental as anyone associated with the product since the beginning.

“People love real fighters, and no one ever fit that description better than Chuck,” White said. “He loved this sport and he loved to fight. He didn’t care about money. He didn’t care about anything other than fighting.

"I was Chuck’s manager before, and I can tell you that the only fights Chuck and I had in all the time we were together were that he wanted to fight more...he was a gunslinger.

"He went out there and put his heart and soul into every [fight], and the fans picked up on that. He was the first real superstar of the UFC, of at least the time that we owned the company.”

Hayden Panettiere Jules Asner Whitney Able Kelly Clarkson Natalie Portman

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