The 411 MMA Top 5 06.10.10: Week 45 – Favorite Chuck Liddell Moments

Posted by Larry Csonka on 06.10.2010

From his battles with Randy Couture and his stint on Dancing With the Stars to his War with Wanderlei Silva and even the time he kicked Babalu’s head off, the 411 MMA writers share their favorite Chuck Liddell moments in latest installment of the MMA Top 5!



Welcome:
Welcome back to the MMA Top 5! What we are going to is take a topic each week and all the writers here on 411 MMA will have the ability to give us their Top 5 on said topic, plus up to three honorable mentions. It's highly non-official and final, like WAMMA.


And now…



OUR FAVORITE CHUCK LIDDELL MOMENTS!


Jeffrey Harris

HM: Chuck Liddell As TUF Coach - Liddell is boatloads of fun as the coach on TUF whether it's his reactions to the fights, his ragging on Tito (along with that awesome custom shirt), or other fighters imitating. Liddell back as coach has been non-stop awesomeness.



HM: Chuck Liddell Looking Weird - To this day I still have no idea what the heck is going on with Chuck here. Maybe he's just doing an odd yawn-stretching thing. But dang, that is weird. Seriously, what the heck is going on here?


5. Chuck Liddell On Dancing With The Stars - You know MMA has arrived when one of its biggest stars appears on Dancing With The Stars. Liddell killed it with fantastic moments such as this:



4. Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz I - It was one of the biggest showdowns the UFC had ever seen. Liddell had lost his long-awaited bid for a title against Randy Couture. The former champion, Ortiz, lost the belt definitively to Couture. And Ortiz finally faced the guy he was supposed to defend the title against in the first place. Ortiz was no match for Liddell who knocked him out early in the second round. Score 1 for Couture.



3. Chuck Liddell vs. Randy Couture III - UFC 57 - In the rubber match for one of the most important and significant trilogies in the history of MMA and UFC, Liddell and Couture faced off one last time for the light heavyweight title. Liddell won the feud by taking out Couture in the second round which sent Couture into retirement for a year before coming back to dominate the heavyweight title picture yet again.

2. Chuck Liddell Naked Workout - Reebok went viral with the Iceman making him their unorthodox spokesperson for their shoes by having him workout naked. Despite it being outed very quickly as a fake, it didn't stop the media from going crazy over this video over the naked and unashamed Liddell showing off with his naughty bits blurred out. Also interesting was the naked chick, Heidi Northcott, Liddell's girlfriend who previously dated Jose Canseco. I think.



1. Chuck Liddell vs. Randy Couture II - UFC 52 - Randy Couture had come back and dominated the light heavyweight division by beating younger bucks in Liddell and Ortiz. Liddell rallied back and defeated Ortiz and got his title rematch against Couture. Liddell's dream of becoming champion finally came true. Liddell was one of the figurehead champions on a new wave of popularity and ascension for UFC and MMA as a whole.

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Jeremy Lambert
HM: Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz 1 - Because watching Liddell tee off on Tito's big head never gets old.

HM: Liddell vs. Vernon White - White's KO fall is still one of the best of all time.

HM: The after party is at... - The best post-fight comment any fighter can ever make.

5. UFC 62 Pre-Event Press Conference/Chuck Liddell vs. Renato Sobral 2 - Forrest Griffin wrote in his book, "never talk trash. It only motivates your opponent." He followed that by saying, "unless you're Chuck Liddell. When he told Renato Sobral that 'I'm gonna knock you out' everyone in the room, including Sobral, nodded and confirmed the knockout. It was the sign of utter confidence." And of course, he knocked out Sobral so bad that Sobral tried fighting the ref.

4. Chuck Liddell vs. Randy Couture 3 - The rubber match between two Legendary UFC Hall of Famer Octagon Warriors set another record as it was once again the biggest fight at the time. Like the second fight, Liddell KO'd Couture to not only retain his UFC Light Heavyweight title but also send Couture into retirement for the first time in his career.



3. Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz 2 - The first ever UFC PPV to crack a million buys was headlined by the UFC Light Heavyweight title fight Liddell and Ortiz. They were the biggest stars in the sport at the time and the grudge between them is legendary. The end result was just like the first fight, Liddell stopped Ortiz with strikes, retained his title, but unfortunately failed to shut Tito up.

2. Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva - It's my favorite fight of all time and I can't imagine it ever being surpassed. After years of build up, years of it falling through, years of talk, Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva finally squared off at UFC 79. And unlike a lot of fights where the action doesn't like up to the hype, this one did. For 15 minutes Liddell and Silva traded strikes until the final buzzer sounded. At the end of the action, Liddell had his hand raised in victory and as of now it remains the last win on his record.

1. Chuck Liddell vs. Randy Couture 2 - The fight that etched Liddell's name in the record books. After losing to Couture the first time around and then coaching against him on TUF (where both of Liddell's fighter won), Liddell finally settled the score at UFC 52. It was the most anticipated UFC fight at the time and Liddell gave the fans what they wanted. He quickly KO'd Couture to capture the UFC Light Heavyweight title and begin his reign as the best UFC Light Heavyweight champ of all time.

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Matt Welch
HM: The Chuck-Spasm - Jeffrey Harris has the .gifs covered on this front, but for reasons that I'm still not sure have ever been unearthed, Chuck couldn't seem to watch a fight without making it look like he was on the receiving end of an exorcism. Ne'er a funnier reaction to an MMA fight.

HM: CM Punk attempts to get Chuck to kick Samoa Joe's ass - An indirect Liddell moment. Long story short, Punk and Joe were at an Ibiza strip club in California and to the chagrin of absolutely no one, Liddell was in attendance as well. Punk and Joe were sitting nearby while Chuck was posing for pictures and flashing the obligatory shaka sign, and Punk tried to get Chuck's attention by mocking his hand gesture. Catching Liddell's attention, Punk immediately ducked down to leave Joe out in the cold in hopes that he could say he got to see his best friend get his ass kicked by "The Iceman."

HM: Nyquil def. Chuck Liddell via TKO (Strikes), Round 1




5. Chuck Liddell vs. Vitor Belfort - On the pantheon of entertaining Chuck Liddell fights, this main event tilt from UFC 37.5 is certainly in the mix. Despite Belfort taking the fight on just one month's notice, the Brazilian was game through 2.5 rounds of action. But just when Vitor began some degree of rhythm with 90 seconds left in the bout, he wound up on the wrong end of a point-blank slugfest with Liddell. Flooring Belfort with a counter right hook, Liddell sealed the decision victory and staked his claim to Tito Ortiz's light heavyweight crown.

4. Chuck Liddell vs. Vernon White - While White, currently 26-34-2, is nothing more than a punchline in MMA circles these days, his bout with Liddell at UFC 49 packed no shortage of entertainment. While White slipped in a couple well-placed punches on his own, this was just a straight up ass kicking on Chuck's part. Over the course of four minutes, Liddell dropped White on four occasions, the final one rivaling Forrest Griffin/Anderson Silva and the Rashad Evans stanky leg for MMA's best knockout pose.

3. Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz I - Back in the early to mid-00's, fights didn't get much bigger than this. The laundry list of Tito-isms that precluded this fight are well documented and the Ortiz haters got their money's worth at UFC 47. Turning up the pressure near the end of the first round, Liddell carried things over early into the second frame, capped by the highlight reel finish we've all seen a million times.

2. Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva - Some fans poopoo'ed on this fight heading into it because of it's timing. Neither fighter had the allure of their 2005 form, but that didn't put a damper of this fight in the slightest. In a 15-minute epic slugfest that will hold up for years to come, Liddell bested Wandy on the scorecards. I remember showing this fight to a bunch of friends in it's immediate aftermath and as MMA continues to evolve, I think Liddell-Silva is one of those that's on a Bonnar-Griffin, Fedor-Cro Cop level of great fights to introduce any new fan to.

1. Chuck Liddell vs. Randy Couture II - This fight, alongside the Matt Hughes-Frank Trigg contest that preceded it, are the two reasons why I got into MMA. The counter right hand Liddell slipped on Couture that ended this fight will forever be one of the defining images in my MMA fandom. The strike sealed the deal and set the tone for the next two years of the light heavyweight division, where Liddell amassed four title defenses. Since then, it's been nothing short of a carousel at 205 pounds, which really puts into perspective just how commendable Liddell's run at the top was. I'm sure the nay sayers may lob a potshot about the competition out there, but in a sport where someone like Frankie Edgar can beat B.J. Penn or Matt Serra can beat GSP, we often take a fighter's ability to stay on top for a substantial period of time for granted. The sport's still young and how far Saturday's bout with Rich Franklin goes towards determining Liddell's future remains to be seen, but "The Iceman" has got my bid for best light heavyweight ever at this stage.

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Samer Kadi
5. Liddell kicks Babalu's head off - This is one of my first Chuck Liddell memories. I was intrigued by this badass dude with the Mohawk and was wondering whether his fighting abilities matched his charisma (that's before I ever heard him speak, so don't jump on me for the use of the word "charisma"). It took Chuck a little over two minutes to dispatch Sobral with a brutal left high kick to confirm his status as the number one contender for the light heavyweight title.

4. The baseball pitch overhand right - In 2003, the UFC agreed to send Chuck Liddell over to Japan to compete in the PRIDE middleweight tournament. His quarterfinal opponent was a pre-horse meat Alistair Overeem. After three intense minutes which saw Overeem get some early success and looked to have had "The Iceman" in trouble, Chuck managed to turn things around with a trademark overhand right that he seemed to have thrown from halfway across the ring. When it connected, Overeem crumbled, and Chuck finished him off with a barrage of punches.

3. Chuck knocks out Randy to capture the light heavyweight title - Randy Couture had upset Liddell in a scintillating performance to capture the interim light heavyweight title in 2003. He followed it up with a 25-minute beatdown of Tito Ortiz to unify the belts. After the first season of the Ultimate Fighter where Chuck and Randy were opposed as coaches, the two UFC titans locked horns in a rematch at UFC 52. Chuck proved that rematches happen for a reason, as he knocked out Randy with a perfect counter right hand and embarked on a journey of dominance in the light heavyweight division that saw him emerge as the biggest star the sport has ever seen.

2. Chuck Vs Tito I - For whatever reason, I like everything about this fight better than the rematch: The hype, the anticipation and the action (which is odd as nothing happened in the first round). Despite not being nearly as big as their record-breaking rematch at UFC 66, this fight is one of my favorite UFC experiences. After a LONG feeling out process in the opening round, Chuck finally got Tito's attention with a nice combination followed by a head kick that Tito blocked just in time, prompting Tito to shove referee John McCarthy after the bell. The second round saw a much more determined Chuck Liddell come out strong and finished Tito with a brutal flurry against the cage.

1. Chuck Liddell Vs Wanderlei Silva - Yes, the fight should have happened earlier. And yes, both fighters were coming off back-to-back losses, but no, none of that matters. One of the rare occasions where the fight truly lived up to the hype, and maybe even exceeded it. Silva and Liddell went out there and had an all out war. The second round remains in my opinion, one of the best rounds in MMA history.

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Jonathan Solomon
5. Chuck Goes Dancing - Chuck Liddell, dancing king? He appeared on a previous season of Dancing With the Stars and by most accounts, did not do too bad for himself. Liddell may not look like a svelte man, but not only can he knock you out with a single punch, he can move around on the floor. If for nothing else, seeing Chuck in the costumes was reason enough to cackle.

4. Chuck vs. Tito (2004) - This gets lower billing than the rematch from me because the 2006 fight was a pair of superstars squaring off. On the contrary, this fight perhaps MADE Chuck into the MMA superstar he became. Tito had "hid" from Chuck for months (leading to the Randy Couture fight) but ultimately, they signed to fight. The two former friends, turned rivals, fought for the first time and Liddell made sure to prove he was the better fighter.

3. Chuck vs. Wanderlei - Five years in the making, indeed. People were creaming to see this fight and in 2007, they finally did. Despite the fact that both men were older and perhaps not as fierce as they once were, they gave everyone the show they wanted to see on that December night. They duked it out in classic fashion and showing his intelligence, a late round takedown all but guaranteed The Iceman victory.

2. Chuck BESTS The Natural - UFC 52 followed the original season of TUF in which Liddell and Randy Couture were coaches. Liddell finally beat Couture with a big counter just two minutes into the fight. Couture had no idea what hit him as Liddell unleashed his celebratory madness. Chuck won his first MMA championship and would go on to make four successful defenses of the UFC light heavyweight belt. For many people, this was the first UFC PPV they saw (after being turned onto the product through TUF) and what they saw was Chuck Liddell becoming king.

1. Chuck vs. Tito (2006) - Arguably the biggest fight in UFC history, it brought the UFC its first buyrate over the million mark. That doesn't even include both men were at their peak in terms of talent and popularity (arguable, perhaps). The fight saw both guys slug it out, Chuck defend Tito's attempts at wrestling and eventual KO win for Chuck. The Iceman made the Huntington Beach Bad Boy look like a nice little boy.

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Andrew Gladstone
5. Chuck Liddell's drunk interview - In an interview with Gary Cogill, Chuck Liddell manages to show up drunk trying to promote the movie 300. One cannot help but laugh at the situation, and will forever be known as MMA comedy gold.



4. Guy Mezger vs. Chuck Liddell - Pride 14 Clash of the Titans - After losing the first round and being dropped by Mezger, Liddell shows the heart of a champion and comes after Mezger in round 2. Liddell manages to finish this fight with one of the rarely used kempo karate punches that sent Mezger brutally down to the canvas.



3. Chuck Liddell vs. Randy Couture 2 - UFC 52 - Liddell managed to do something not even some of the best heavyweights were able to do, as he knocked out Randy Couture in the rematch for the UFC light heavyweight title. It was then at UFC 52, where he finally won a championship and further solidified his legacy as one of the all time greats in the sport.

2. Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz 2 - UFC 66 - No one can deny the huge amount of buzz that surrounded this fight between the fight. This will be forever known as one of the highest grossing UFC pay-per-views due to the clashing personalities of Liddell and Ortiz. Liddell managed to dispose of Ortiz once again and beat up Ortiz pretty bad throughout the fight, and finally finished him in the third round.

1. Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva - UFC 79 - I for one did not care that both men had two losses, and I still believed that fireworks would ensue. In a great back and forth fight, Liddell managed to stay more disciplined than Wanderlei and worked his angles better to win a unanimous decision victory, in one of the best fights in UFC history.

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