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Written by Elias Cepeda of Inside Fighting.com
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Thursday, 28 December 2006 |
 Calm and determined confidence; you don’t get much else out of Chuck Liddell.
When talking about his upcoming UFC light heavyweight title defense
against Tito Ortiz at UFC 66 this Saturday, Liddell is direct and
succinct.
Listening to him, there is no doubt that Liddell is focused on winning the fight, but he says that it’s just another fight to him and all fights matter equally to him.
“He’s just another guy standing in front of me” Liddell says.
“I don’t like losing at anything, much less something I think I’m good at. I want to win no matter who I’m fighting” he continues.
While I’m sure that is true, it’s hard to believe that Liddell isn’t especially keyed up for Ortiz. A particular moment behind the scenes at UFC 64 comes to mind.
A day or two before the event, a fighter on the card was in the Mandalay Bay Events Center arena heading to his assigned practice room to get some training in. But as he opened the door he found the space already occupied by Chuck Liddell who was kicking a heavy bag. After greeting the other fighter, Liddell explained his presence by reportedly saying something to the effect of “I’ve got a big-headed trash talker to get ready for.”
That UFC 64 fighter found another training room and Liddell was left to his training, for a fight approximately three months away. Without commenting on the size of Tito Ortiz’ head myself, it’s pretty obvious Liddell was talking about him that October day.
It’s a telling moment, Liddell in the bowels of an arena days before an event he wasn’t fighting on, kicking the crap out of a bag while thinking of Tito Ortiz.
Just another guy huh? Not likely.
When pressed, Liddell makes an interesting distinction. Fighting Ortiz indeed pushed him hard during training, but now, the week of the fight he’s at a pretty even keel and is able to be in normal “fight mode”.
“That (the pre UFC 64 training session) was training. That is a very special fight and you do all you can in training…it would be the worst thing in the world to lose to him and have to hear him talk about it for ever” Liddell chuckles.
“But now during the fight week, all the training is done and it’s just another fight now. I’m going to do what I do and that’s go out there and try to hurt him” he says.
There was certainly a fire burning within Liddell during training, but during fight week, cool and calculated composure is the order for the “Iceman”. Liddell obviously that a good portion of a fight is won in training and he’s confident that his had prepared him for Ortiz.
To his credit, Liddell has ended most of his fights in the early rounds. Has his training prepared him to go five championship rounds with the cardio-machine Ortiz?
“I don’t think he’ll make it that far, but yeah, I’m ready to go five” Liddell responds.
That’s it. No concession that his ability to go the distance has been relatively untested, no crediting Ortiz’ well-known conditioning. Liddell exudes confidence, plain and simple.
Ask him if matching up with Ortiz poses any particular challenges at all, and it’s more of the same. In fact, you’d think Liddell was asked a different question all together.
“I’m a bad match up for him. He’s good when he gets the takedown. He’s got dangerous elbows, but I’m planning on keeping it standing. So I’m not too worried about that” Liddell states.
Whereas Ortiz has said he always considers the possibility of losing before his fights, Liddell does not concede the possibility that Ortiz has a shot against him or that he ever thinks about losing, for that matter.
“Losing never crosses my mind” says Liddell.
“I’ll deal with it when it happens. I’m just thinking about fighting and winning. It’s my job” Liddell sums up.
In making predictions for the Liddell/Ortiz rematch some pundits have favored Liddell, in part, because they believe that he has faced and beaten stiffer competition recently than Ortiz has. Liddell, however, doesn’t necessarily see it that way.
“I don’t talk bad about anybody that fights in this ring. The guys I’ve been fighting have been tough and he’s been fighting guys that I don’t consider bad either” Liddell believes.
Liddell doesn’t seem to hold the same prohibition of not “talking bad” about other fighters when it comes to Ortiz. Of course, he probably doesn’t view it as trash talk, but simply as statements of facts as he sees them.
Ortiz has not historically been an angel in pre-fight talk either. But there is a definite edge to Liddell’s words when he’s asked to speak of Ortiz. Ortiz may volunteer his opinions more freely than Liddell, but when you ask Liddell how feels about Ortiz, you get an answer.
Take, for example, Liddell’s accidental eye poke of Ortiz in their first fight (at UFC 47 in 2004) that preceded his fight-ending flurry of punches. How much of a factor was the eye poke?
“I think I was going to knock him out sooner or later anyways” says Liddell.
“But if he thinks that’s what did it, fine. He always looks for excuses anyway.”
Liddell seemed to believe before their first fight that Ortiz didn’t want to fight him. Does he still believe that he is in the former champion’s head?
“Well he’s obviously not ducking me now, but I still think I’m in his head. He has to worry about my punches and kicking, and that’s always a good thing for me” says Liddell.
Liddell may have been an accountant, but he seems to also be a firm believer in history. Liddell feels that he has already proven to Ortiz what he can do to him with his power and if he doesn’t seem to worried about Ortiz it’s probably because he doesn’t believe that Ortiz did much of anything to him the first time around.
On Saturday, December 30th, we’ll find out if history will repeat itself for Chuck Liddell.
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