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Michael Rome: Chuck Liddell wants to move to UFC’s Heavyweight Division
By Zach Arnold | November 22, 2008
Some questions/thoughts to ponder:
- Let’s say that Couture vs. Liddell does happen… again. Is there strong enough interest in the fight? Both men are on the decline, and the last time Randy lost… well, everyone thought he was retiring, only for him to come back as a heavyweight. I’m not sure what the money storyline would be here other than the tagline of “this is match four between the two men.”
- Is the move by Liddell basically putting off the inevitable, which is that he’s going to have to retire within the next couple of years? He’s coming off the torn hamstring, has knee issues, and his reflexes are getting a little slower in the cage. Against anyone with speed and a solid game plan, Liddell’s toast. (Just hire Greg Jackson to coach you for a fight against Liddell and you’ll win) So, is the hope essentially that Liddell will be able to use ‘speed’ against more powerful heavyweights like Cain Velasquez? That’s a gamble.
- If Liddell does beat Couture in match four, then Dana White faces a situation where Liddell would have to face Brock Lesnar. UFC President Dana White is Chuck Liddell’s biggest fan, but would he turn on him and completely side with Lesnar as far as winning being the best for the company’s bottom line? I ask this question for one reason… consider Brock Lesnar’s past track record when he’s on top of whatever athletic endeavor he has been involved in… would you be willing to trust him 100% given what he’s done in the past?
- Mr. Rome claims that UFC was not happy with the buyrate of UFC 90 (Anderson Silva vs. Patrick Cote), so the dreams of sugar plums dancing in the heads of UFC management was dashed. What a lousy deal that is for Silva — the UFC 90 PPV was doomed from the start because it had such a weak card line-up. It was a dog of a show. They’re not happy that Silva couldn’t reportedly draw more than 300,000 PPV buys for that deal? Even if Dave Meltzer’s report is true that the top cities that UFC did PPV buys in for the UFC 90 show were all Canadian, how is that Anderson Silva’s fault?
- Back to Couture/Liddell… it seems like UFC management is going to try to ride this one down to the ground like Vince McMahon rode down Hulk Hogan/Randy Savage in the late 80s, huh?
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 19 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Oh come on Zach…they’d be jumping for joy at getting to run Brock vs. either of the two. This is about money. Brock-Randy 2 will do absolutely gigantic business, rematches of big fights do all the time. And chuck-brock…well, the business potential of that fight is through the roof.
It does suck for Anderson. Frankly, he was set up to fail with that main event. It’s not that they’re done promoting him, it’s just that they aren’t going to sacrafice Liddell to him, considering he’s not drawing that big and he wants to retire.
I think Chuck might fare better at HW in the UFC just because there aren’t a lot of dynamic strikers in the division. BUt yeah…it’s putting off the inevitable.
I told Liddell to make this move all the way back in July.
http://mma4real.net/2008/07/14/why-chuck-liddell-should-move-to-hw/
I think it’s pretty safe to say that for the past five years or so, Couture and Liddel have served as the face of the UFC. Much as any new, rising sport, MMA in the US needed to convince viewers that this was a legitimate sport with legitimate athletes and competitors. To most people who have gotten interested in MMA in the past five years, Couture and Liddel are the guys who did that for them. Now with that being said, we’ve come to a time where it seems now that Chuck Liddel has been rendered somewhat obsolete in the top five Light Heavyweight picture and as you well know many people are already beginning to claim the same for Randy Couture at Heavyweight. While I’m not personally ready to write Randy Couture off, I think there are only a few people who share my thought process.
So with all that being said, this is where we come to; Couture vs. Liddel is not a fight between two viable contenders who just need one more big win to get a title shot. I don’t think anybody would believe it is and it would be foolish for the UFC to promote it that way. What this fight is to me, is a chance for two rivals who helped propel the UFC to it’s current position just a few years ago to have one more big fight at the twilight of both of their respective careers. This is a working formula. I think if you ask any boxing fan who fell off in the past few years what the last big fight they remember was, I would guarantee they would tell you Lennox Lewis vs. Mike Tyson. What made that fight anticipated and what gave it drama was not that it was two guys who were at the top of their game having a hugely competitive fight, what gave it drama was that it was surely the last big fight for both of them and thus the stakes where that much higher. Couture and Liddel has that same element to it, and on top of that the stakes are even higher considering that both men are coming off big losses.
I’ve always had a very simple and arguably naive philosophy about the fight business; The more that is at stake or in the least the more that is promoted to be at stake for a fight, the more interest and money it will draw. Is there a chance that Couture/Liddel could bury the loser and go on to bury the winner if he loses his following fight? Of course. But at least it’ll be honest. This is a fight devoid of the manufactured hype that the UFC conjures for all of Anderson Silva’s squash matches. This fight promotes itself, has a lot at stake for the guys involved, could end up being an awesome fight, could rejuvenate one or even both men’s careers, and could be a huge draw for both diehard and casual fans. While there is certainly a lot to lose for just about everyone involved, I think it could be a great fight for the UFC and MMA in general.
Of course I might just be fucking crazy and drinking the Zuffa Kool Aid. I dunno, tell me whatcha think.
Every single person I talked to prior to UFC 90 asked me “Hey, who’s that guy fighting Anderson Silva at the next show?” These are all relatively casual fans, but it’s a good cross-section of people who would be potentially buying the PPV.
Also, I’m living in Canada, and not a single Canadian knew who Patrick Cote was.
Ad for Liddell at Heavyweight? Why not. You get some additional mileage out of old Chuck, and at the same time give one of the UFC’s weakest divisions a shot in the arm.
Liddell vs. Lesnar, Couture, Nogueira or Mir could all be potential money-machines, so it’s not a bad move.
PS: On an unrelated note: when is Shame Carwin getting some real competition?
If Chuck wants to move to HW let him, i’m not one of the believers that thinks Liddell is too one dimentional or whatever other bs people are throwing around these days.
I think his timing has slowed and age has finally caught up with him, at least at HW he’d have a slight edge over most his opponents when it comes to reflexes.
I’d like to see Chuck test himself against the young new crop of HW’s the UFC has gathered, Liddell only has a couple more years left and this would be a good way to maybe see him contend for a belt again.
If the top selling cities were in Canada, that leads you to the shocking conclusion that Patrick Cote was the headline name, not Anderson Silva.
People who are more interested in who Silva is fighting than in Silva beating them. Very interesting.
I’m with Alex here.
Chuck or Randy vs anyone is about the SuperFight at this point. They’re not going to be put into legitimate contender fights anymore because either the UFC doesn’t think they can put together a string of wins necessary anymore (Chuck), or they don’t trust them (Randy, who has probably retired one too many times for his own good, which tells you everything you need to know about Tito too).
The SuperFight is ripe for a comeback, people are lamenting the limited star power on cards that are designed to put legitimate contenders up against beltholders and the “shallowness” of cards, so you add a SuperFight to it. Everyone realizes that these guys aren’t going to be contending anymore, but they’re living legends.
Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture are at the twilight of their career now. They can’t win their way into a title shot anymore. So have them fight each other. Oscar De La Hoya isn’t a contender anymore either but people will still pay to watch him fight until he retires.
How is that a “Bloody Elbow” exclusive when it was widely discussed backstage at UFC 91?
“EDITORIAL Note [from Michael Rome and Luke Thomas]: To websites using this news: BloodyElbow.com was the first to publish this scoop, not the UK Sun. We ask that you respect this fact and give this site and Michael Rome proper credit for breaking this news.”
Wow! Do you really think we don’t read the Wrestling Observer? This is old news.
[…] yesterday, Zach Arnold asked the question, is there any interest for Liddell vs Couture IV? That’s a good question. When Randy first […]
We saw Randy & Chuck fight rematches for so long…can’t we get some fresh matchups?
“How is that a “Bloody Elbow” exclusive when it was widely discussed backstage at UFC 91?”
Because, per usual, you don’t have a fucking clue what you’re talking about. Worry less about Rome’s writing and more about that ghost town you call your website.
LOL at Luke Thomas. Nice professionalism, not to mention you’re doing what you’d ban anyone else for doing on your site.
I would be embarrassed if my “Exclusive” had been reported elsewhere too.
BTW, I know for a fact that it was discussed by UFC folks and the media at UFC 91. And that it was in the Observer Monday.
Actually Liddell moving up to heavyweight and facing the champion if he wins this was not in the observer monday.
And I have nothing against Luke, love the Bloody Elbow site. But I don’t think that’s the proper way to reply, use some tact or if you think the guy is a joke then don’t bother replying. Or better yet tell us why he’s wrong…was this part of the backstage banter at UFC 91 or in the observer.
How come I don’t see you on that site, Gaijin? Am I the only one who’s bored enough at work to post in both sites? 🙂
I don’t actually post since you have to sign up and all that. My work has a pretty sticky IT policy for registration sites, I’m sure there’s got to be a way around it but I haven’t had the time to look into it.
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