Dana White Backs Off Of Chuck Liddell Retirement Talk
Posted by Larry Csonka on 04.17.2009
And Chuck speaks…
"I'm not even saying if he wins (because) unless he looks incredibly impressive - I mean, he's going to have to go out there and dazzle me for me to want Chuck to still fight."
These were comments made last month by Dana White. Today at the UFC 97 press conference, white backed down off of the statements, and said that it got blown out of proportion.
"I think early on when I first made that statement publicly, it got blown out of proportion. Kind of like most of my public statements. He and I sat down before this fight was made and had a long talk. Everyone knows my relationship with him. I was basically saying [those comments], you know, out of friendship. People were like, 'Oh, you're going to kick Chuck Liddell to the curb.' Far from it. Whether he's fighting or retired, he's going to be with the UFC until I'm dead."
Chuck Liddell also spoke on the possibility of retirement, stating…
"Honestly, I'm planning to come out and have an impressive performance and knock him out. With that, I don't think there's going to be any problems with bringing me back (to the UFC), so I'm really not worried about it. It's not something I worry about. It's like everything else. This fight is very important, it's a very tough fight, and so I'm going to concentrate on this. I'll worry about what happens after the fight after the fight."
