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Dominant Liddell Retains UFC Light Heavyweight Belt |
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Written by Josh Gross of Sherdog.com
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Sunday, 27 August 2006 |
 Light heavyweight mixed martial artists of the world, heed these words: Do not chase Chuck Liddell; do not trade with the man.
Saturday night inside a sold-out Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, the 36-year-old champion needed just 95 seconds to retain his UFC light heavyweight title, punishing a sloppy, lunging Renato Sobral with his fists before referee John McCarthy could protect the hurt Brazilian.
“He was coming after me hard,” Liddell said after the fight. “He wanted
to come after me. I’ll catch you sooner or later you keep coming at me
like that.”
A rematch of a November 2002 bout in which “The Iceman” was just as
dominant in delivering one of the sport’s iconic video clips,
Saturday’s fight matched a confident “Babalu,” who came in winner of
his last 10 since taking Liddell’s shin to the face, against perhaps
the best American currently competing in the sport.
Rather than establishing a sane pace against a champion that allows
challengers to do this, the Brazilian, who snarled as ring announcer
Bruce Buffer announced his name, broke rule No. 1 by going directly
after the hard-punching Californian.
Punching as he backpedaled, Liddell landed a looping right fist to
Sobral’s face and followed with an angled-hook that mercifully
connected with the inside of the champion’s forearm.
“Babalu” fell to his knees, his face pressed against the canvas. Yet
the 30-year-old from Rio de Janeiro still had fight in him. He soon
stood and took another Liddell right hand for the effort.
Now with his back to the floor, where most felt Sobral would have to be
to win the rematch — though surely not like this — the challenger took
vicious rights to his face that forced him to cover and roll away from
the onslaught.
“Fighting motivates me,” said the UFC champion. “I love this sport. I love what we do in here.”
A bout with Tito Ortiz looms as Liddell’s next test in the
UFC, though July’s announcement of a potential showdown against PRIDE
champion Wanderlei Silva trumps any fight the UFC could make
on its own right now.
“Either one is fine with me,” Liddell, now 19-3-0, said of Ortiz and
Silva. “I think Wanderlei Silva would be a fun fight for me.
One round guys, I’m sorry.”
Both fighters would appear to be a much stiffer test than the 27-6-0
Sobral, who for all his cardio training and submission acumen showed no
semblance of a game plan tonight.
The win marks Liddell’s third UFC 205-pound title defense — Jeremy Horn , Randy Couture (Pictures) and Sobral — and his 14th UFC
victory, the most of any fighter in the organization’s 13-year history.
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