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A Day in the Life of UFC Champ Chuck Liddell |
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Written by Carlos Arias of OCRegister.com
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Tuesday, 24 April 2007 |
 Chuck Liddell defends his UFC light-heavyweight title against Renato “Babalu” Sobral on Aug. 26 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
Liddell, who has been training for almost three months in San Luis
Obispo for the fight, took a break from his training camp for a
whirlwind media tour in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
Liddell allowed the Register to tag along, so here is a day in the life of the mixed martial arts superstar:
12:20 p.m.: Liddell arrives at LAX, bouncing and shadowboxing as he
steps to the curb. It’s hard not to notice a 6-2, 205-pound man with a
mohawk and tattoo (which means “Temple of Peace” in Thai) on the side
of his head. UFC publicist Loren Mack, Liddell’s manager Jervis Cole
and myself are there to greet him as we await the limousine. Liddell
says, “I used to be able to pick out the UFC fans when I was in the
airport. Now, it could be anybody.” Just after he says this, a
businessman in his 50s approaches Liddell and tells him he is a big
fan. Then a couple in their 20s comes over and asks him, “When’s your
next fight? We can’t wait to see you fight.” Liddell is accommodating
to all of them.
Mack says it’s time to go, so we pile into the limo. Liddell and Cole,
a 6-6 former pro basketball player, talk about their last trip to
Disneyland and the difficulty of trying to jam their large frames into
the seats of the Space Mountain ride. Liddell went to Disneyland with
his kids to celebrate his knockout victory over Randy Couture on Feb. 4
at UFC 57. Liddell says he was allowed to lead the parade, which really
impressed his kids, Cade, 8, and Trista, 9. Liddell says he tries to
spend as much time as possible with his kids. His daughter lives with
him, but his son lives with his mother in Denver, which is very tough
on the champ.
We start talking about Liddell’s upcoming fight against Babalu. Liddell
says Babalu is a tough guy, but he will still knock him out. I bring up
Liddell’s possible dream matchup against Pride champion Wanderlei Silva
in November. I ask him if it’s hard to stay focused on Babalu with such
a major fight on the horizon? “I always have big fight coming up,” he
says. “That’s how it always is for me. I focus on this fight in front
of me.” I ask him how he thinks a fight against Silva would go down? He
says he will knock him out in the first round. he says Silva has an
aggressive style, which will make for an exciting fight, but he says
Silva has a suspect chin.
Liddell talks about how he got started in martial arts when he was a
young kid. He used to watch Kung-Fu Theatre and they would show Karate
and Kung-Fu demonstrations during the commercials. That’s how he got
hooked. Then he took up Muay Thai. When he was 14 and 15 years old he
would spar with grown men. The kids his age couldn’t hang with him, so
he had to spar with the older kids. He says he was a gym rat. He would
wait at the gym for anyone to spar.
1:04 p.m.: We arrive at the studios for Playboy Radio on Sirius
Satellite. Liddell doesn’t know what he’s about to get himself into.
The host of the show, a redhead named Tiffany Granath who is built like
Jessica Rabbit, asks Liddell about his upcoming fight. She quickly
directs the talk to Liddell’s social life. Liddell is squirming like a
fighter trying to escape a submission hold. Then she asks if Liddell if
he would mind giving some advice to her callers. Liddell decides to
take on the challenge. Meet the Dr. Ruth of the UFC. This is a family
publication, so I can’t get in to all of the questions Liddell had to
field. He did reveal, “The most excited you’ll ever see me is after
knocking a guy out.” In the production booth, the phone lines are lit
up during Liddell’s entire segment. One of the Playboy producers tells
us that they have all kinds of celebrities and actors on their show,
but they get the most calls when Liddell is on the show, and when
former UFC champion Tito Ortiz did the show. “People baffle me,”
Liddell says as we leave the Playboy Radio studio.
1:53 p.m.: On the way to the next stop, Liddell does a phone interview
with Las Vegas Magazine, which will feature him on the cover during the
week of the fight. Cole tells me about Liddell’s endorsement deal with
Xyience, which is giving Liddell over seven figures to endorse their
supplements, energy drinks and health bars. Cole says Xyience is coming
out with a “Chuck Liddell Energy Drink” with Liddell’s logo on it.
2:12 p.m.: We arrive at the KABC studios where Liddell gets a slightly
different line of questioning than at Playboy Radio. When Liddell’s
interview is finished, a number of the office staff approach Liddell
for photos and autographs. Liddell slaps a head lock on one of them and
they snap the picture. The guy loves it.
Outside as we wait for our ride, Liddell talks about an encounter with
pro skateboarder Jason Ellis at one of the after parties for one of his
fights. Ellis, who is a big fan of Liddell’s, had a few drinks in him
and he asked Liddell to punch him in the arm. Ellis kept insisting that
Liddell punch him in the arm. Finally, Liddell gave him a short right
hand to the arm. “He told me his arm was dead for a week,” Liddell said.
I ask Liddell about his recent acting job on “Blade: The Series.”
Liddell had a fighting scene on the vampire TV show. “I liked working
with the stunt guys,” he says. “But it’s funny because I can tell they
are on strict orders not to hurt me.” He tells me he recently filmed an
episode of the HBO hit “Entourage.” He says it’s his favorite show.
Liddell says he plans to fight for 3-4 more years and he will fit in
acting gigs in between as they come.
We’re going to meet up with Liddell’s ex-girlfriend Willa Ford, a
singer/model/actress, for lunch. Liddell says they broke up, but they
are still friends and they still hang out. Liddell tells me about a
beef Ford and Paris Hilton got into that almost led to an altercation
with Liddell and Hilton’s security at a Las Vegas nightclub.
Fortunately, Hilton’s security people backed off. Liddell and Ford have
since squashed their beef with Hilton. Liddell, actually, got tickets
for Hilton to the UFC event at Staples Center earlier this year.
3:07 p.m.: We sit down at a table in a hip Hollywood restaurant. I ask
Liddell about the people had the biggest influence on his life. He says
his grandfather, Charles, had the biggest impact on him. Liddell’s
father left the family when he was 3 years old. His grandfather raised
him and supported him in everything he attempted. They used to watch
UFC events together and his grandfather would tell him he could knock
those guys out. Liddell’s grandfather passed away before he made it to
the UFC. He never got to see his grandson in the Octagon. Liddell says
his father tried to make contact with him after he made it big in the
UFC. “I didn’t want to have anything to do with him,” he says.
Ford arrives after a three-hour ballroom dancing class. She is
preparing for “Dancing with the Stars.” I ask Ford is she watches
Liddell’s fights? “I just sob the whole time because I can’t control
what’s happening,” she says. “But he hasn’t lost since I’ve known him.”
Ford tells me about Liddell’s dog. I’m picturing a Rottweiler with a
junkyard chain around his neck that feeds on tires and small children.
She hands me her phone to show me Liddell’s vicious chomping machine
named Bean, probably the cutest little black Chihuahua you have ever
seen. “He’s the coolest dog ever,” Ford says. Liddell tells me Bean
knows when it’s time for him to got train. Bean will jump into his
travel bag and stay there until Liddell’s training session is finished.
4:35 p.m.: It’s off to the KCAL studios for another TV interview. It
takes 40 minutes before Liddell does his interview. By now he has
answered the same questions about Babalu, Silva and the UFC all day,
but Liddell doesn’t get annoyed. He remains enthusiastic when talking
about the fights. It’s part of the game and he knows how to sell a
fight.
5:48 p.m.: We drop Liddell off at Ford’s house. He has a couple of
hours before his flight back to San Luis Obispo. She’s going to take
him to the airport. Just an average day in the life of a UFC superstar.
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