For a fleeting moment it looked like Chuck Liddell had changed. He was in shape, finally. He had stopped drinking. His new girlfriend had him on the straight and narrow. In the Octagon, Chuck actually threw kicks for the first time in years, one of which broke Rich Franklin's left arm. Liddell was attacking with purpose. Then it all came undone as Franklin threw a short right hook that caught a lunging Liddell and knocked him out.
Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell was unconscious on the mat, again.
For whatever reason many are trying to put a positive spinon this: "Liddell went out like a champion" or "he went out the way he would've wanted to". Almost as if this was some Western; changing Custer's Massacre to Custer's Last Stand.
Sadly, Liddell was not riding off into the sunset even in ambiguity like the western Shane. You couldn't even compare it to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid charging into certain defeat. Unlike that film we saw our hero gunned down, a horrific ending lacking any nobility.
There is no positive in Liddell's loss, the fourth vicious knockout loss in three years and the third in a row. The true cost of his blood on the canvass won't be measured for years to come and the real danger is what will happen to Liddell later in life.
Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports compared this fight to the boxing bout between Holmes vs. Ali. Many believe that the punishment Muhammad took in that fight directly contributed to his mental degradation and the onset of Parkinson's. Thus a dark foreboding cloud hangs over Liddell's final moments inside the cage. Will this be the moment we look back on in disgust at our complicity? The truth of the matter is that we don't yet know what the long-term effects of being an MMA fighter are and that's what makes this result so unnerving.
Saturday night may have been "The Iceman's" final moments inside the Octagon but we will have to wait and see if it will be his final battle.
Full Results
- Rich Franklin def. Chuck Liddell via KO (punch) - Round 1, 4:55.
- Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic def. Patrick Barry via submission (rear-naked choke) - Round 3, 4:30.
- Martin Kampmann def. Paulo Thiago via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27).
- Ben Rothwell def. Gilbert Yvel via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28).
- Carlos Condit def. Rory MacDonald via TKO - Round 3, 4:53.
- Matt Wiman def. Mac Danzig via submission (guillotine choke) - Round 1, 1:45.
- Evan Dunham def. Tyson Griffin via split decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28).
- Mario Miranda def. David Loiseau via TKO (strikes) - Round 2, 4:07.
- James Wilks def. Peter Sobotta via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-28, 30-27).
- Claude Patrick def. Ricardo Funch via submission (guillotine choke) - Round 2, 1:48.
- Mike Pyle def. Jesse Lennox via technical submission (triangle choke) - Round 3, 4:44.
