From his famous mohawk to his ability to create knockout power while he is off balance  Charles David ‘Chuck’ Liddell (born December 17, 1969), also known as “The Iceman” is an American mixed martial artist (MMA) who fights for the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

A former UFC light heavyweight champion, Liddell has an extensive background in kickboxing and collegiate wrestling. He is noted within the MMA community for his exceptional takedown defense and knockout ability. He is generally regarded as a stand-up fighter, relying primarily on his background in Kempo karate and Koei-Kan karate, while using his wrestling skills to defend against takedowns. He is also regarded as an unorthodox striker due to his relaxed hands-down stance and the angles at which he throws punches.

Biography

Chuck Liddell began studying Koei-Kan karate at the age of 12; the tattoo seen on his scalp reads “Koei-Kan”. He was a four year starter on the football team at San Marcos High School. While growing up in Santa Barbara, he often frequented the infamous Del Playa Drive, the middle of the party scene of the college town of Isla Vista, where he often found himself in fights with drunk college students. He became a Division I wrestler at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Business/Accounting in 1995. When Liddell started his MMA career, he began to train in Brazilian jiu-jitsu under John Lewis in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Ultimate Fighting Championship

Liddell made his UFC debut in 1998 with a decision victory over Noe Hernandez. Despite a submission loss to Jeremy Horn shortly after, Liddell began establishing his reputation as a devastating striker with victories over Kevin Randleman, Murilo Bustamante, Vitor Belfort, and Renato Sobral over the next few years. By, 2002, Liddell was considered the number one contender for the UFC light heavyweight title, with growing popularity and support from his fans. The UFC tried to arrange a title bout with then-champion Tito Ortiz, but Ortiz cited scheduling conflicts. To force Ortiz’s hand, they created an interim light heavyweight championship and matched Liddell with experienced wrestler and former heavyweight champion Randy Couture at UFC 43. Couture neutralized Liddell’s hooks with straight punches and eventually began taking him down at will. Couture eventually gained full mount and forced a referee stoppage due to strikes.

After this defeat, Liddell entered the PRIDE 2003 Middleweight Grand Prix tournament as the official UFC representative. After defeating Alistair Overeem in the first round of the tournament, Liddell was eliminated in the next round by Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, losing by corner stoppage, when his corner threw in the towel.

Returning to the UFC, Chuck was, once again, put in contention for the light heavyweight title, preparing for a match with former champion Tito Ortiz. The men had once trained together at the Pitfight Club and experienced a falling out that escalated as Ortiz taunted Liddell. The falling out stemmed from Ortiz’s unwillingness to give Liddell a title fight, despite Liddell’s status as a top contender in the UFC. Eventually, after Ortiz lost the title to Randy Couture, the two would meet in a highly anticipated fight at UFC 47 on April 2, 2004 in Las Vegas, Nevada. After most of the first round was spent feeling each other out, Liddell threw a few punches and a kick which was blocked by Ortiz, with Ortiz slapping himself on the head, taunting Liddell. When the round ended Ortiz pushed referee “Big” John McCarthy out of his way into Liddell and yelled while Liddell exchanged some words. Shortly after the second round started, Liddell threw a flurry of punches which knocked Ortiz down and led to a TKO victory. Tito has stated that Chuck’s thumb made contact with one of Tito’s eyes, causing him to momentarily see “nothing but black”. Since UFC 47, the bad blood between both fighters remained, with Ortiz repeatedly stating that he wanted “his” belt back. Despite the tension, Ortiz and Liddell would not fight again for two and a half years.

 The Ultimate Fighter

In early 2005, Liddell was seen on the inaugural season of The Ultimate Fighter, Spike TV’s reality show featuring fighters competing for a UFC contract. Liddell served as coach of Team Liddell, while fellow fighter and then UFC light heavyweight champion Randy Couture coached Team Couture. The series was a success for both Spike TV and the UFC. Both of the winners of The Ultimate Fighter, Diego Sanchez and Forrest Griffin, were members of Team Liddell, and have gone on to successful careers in MMA.

UFC Championship

On April 16, 2005 at UFC 52, Chuck Liddell would rematch Randy Couture, again for the light heavyweight title. This time the fight ended in a first round knockout victory for Liddell, making him the new UFC light heavyweight champion. Liddell was scheduled to defend his new title against UFC veteran Jeremy Horn, at UFC 54, a matchup the UFC claimed was demanded by long-time fans of the sport since Horn had given Liddell his first loss. Throughout the bout, Liddell dominated with aggressive punches, causing knockdowns in several rounds. Liddell’s defensive wrestling ability, especially his sprawl, stifled the bulk of Horn’s offense, which was centered on grappling and submission wrestling. Liddell eventually won the fight via TKO in 2:46 minutes of the fourth round after Horn informed the referee that he could not see. Liddell had successfully defended his title and, in the process, avenged two of his three career losses.

On February 4, 2006 at UFC 57, Liddell faced Randy Couture in a rubber match, defeating Couture via knockout in Las Vegas, Nevada to retain the light heavyweight championship belt. After the fight, Couture announced his retirement from mixed martial arts. In Liddell’s next defense, at UFC 62 on August 26, 2006, Liddell would best Renato “Babalu” Sobral, who he had defeated nearly three years prior. Liddell scored a quick TKO victory at 1:35 of the first round.

It was announced during UFC 61 that, if he were to defeat Sobral, Liddell would face off against PRIDE Middleweight (205 lb) champion Wanderlei Silva. The fight failed to materialize due to the competing promotions’ inability to reach an agreement. UFC president Dana White attributed this to Silva’s subsequent knockout loss to Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipović.

In what would be the most anticipated UFC fight to date, Chuck Liddell would rematch Tito Ortiz at UFC 66, which took place on December 30, 2006. Liddell’s takedown defense neutralized Ortiz’s wrestling ability, forcing Ortiz to stand up with the more skilled striker. Although Ortiz did take Liddell down at one point in the fight, Liddell went on to defeat Ortiz via TKO in the third round to successfully defend his light heavyweight championship for a fourth time. It was later revealed that Liddell tore his MCL prior to the fight. In addition, during the fight he popped the tendon out on the middle finger on his left hand.

Rematch with Rampage

In his fifth defense, Liddell would lose the title at UFC 71 on May 26, 2007 in a rematch with Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. Liddell was knocked down less than two minutes into round 1 and was subsequently unable to defend himself against Jackson’s strikes on the ground, resulting in a referee stoppage. After the loss Liddell was widely criticized after reports indicating he had been seen in night clubs the week before the event. He responded that it was nothing he had not done prior to his other fights in Las Vegas. At the post the post-UFC 71 press conference, Liddell indicated he would continue to fight. Dana White also stated that his next opponent would likely be “The Axe Murderer” Wanderlei Silva. 

Post Championship

On July 11, 2007 Dana White confirmed in an interview with Yahoo! Sports that a rumoured bout between Wanderlei Silva and Liddell had been canceled indefinitely. Silva and Liddell were supposed to be the main event for UFC 76 in Anaheim, California. Instead, Liddell would face Keith Jardine.

In the main event of UFC 76, Liddell lost a split decision to Jardine, the first consecutive losses of his career. Following the fight, UFC president Dana White, who is close friends with Liddell, stated, “The Chuck Liddell that I saw fight didn’t look like the Chuck Liddell that loves to fight”.

On October 23, 2007 UFC president Dana White announced that a matchup between Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva would finally take place at UFC 79. Liddell defeated Silva via unanimous decision to what many fans and MMA critics called the best fight of the year.

On February 1, 2008, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua revealed that he had recently signed a contract to fight Liddell, howwever on March 4 it was announced on UFC.com that “Shogun” was receiving surgery on his knee and was forced to withdraw from the fight. It was later officially announced that undefeated wrestler Rashad Evans would replace Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in a bout at UFC 85 in London, England. However, a hamstring injury forced Liddell to withdraw from the fight, as well.

On September 6, 2008, Liddell fought Rashad “Sugar” Evans at UFC 88. At 1:51 of the second round, Evans connected with an overhand right, Liddell’s trademark punch, resulting in the former champion unconscious on his stomach. Chuck had simultaneously thrown a right uppercut, missing Evans’ face and instead making contact with the armpit. The knockout was dubbed “knockout of the year” by MMA-website Sherdog and given “knockout of the night”-honors by the UFC.

Massive speculation before the fight in and outside of Zuffa buzzed about a potential high-dollar Light Heavyweight title affair with Liddell and Forrest Griffin on either the UFC’s New Year or Super Bowl Weekend cards, but Rashad Evans’ knockout victory gave Evans the title shot at UFC 92.

 Popularity

Throughout his UFC career, Chuck has been one of the most popular fighters in the organization and one of its biggest draws. He has been featured on the main event or co-main event of every UFC card he’s competed on, dating back to UFC 37.5. Chuck was featured in the co-main event of UFC 40, UFC 49, and UFC 79, respectively. This makes a span of being in the main event or co-main event of 14 fights, a run that has lasted for just over 6 years as of September, 2008. The only UFC fighter who can match this total is Randy Couture, who has 13 main events and 1 co-main event to his record.

Chuck Liddell has also competed on some of the organization’s most lucrative cards, such as UFC 66 (1,050,000 buys; $5,397,300 gate), UFC 71 (675,000 buys; $4,304,000 gate), and UFC 79 (600,000-675,000 buys; $4,994,000 gate). These pay-per-view numbers rank, #1, #3, and #4-#5 respectively on the UFC’s all-time totals. These events also generated three of the four highest grossing gate totals in UFC history (UFC 83 generated $106,000 more than UFC 79).

Personal life

Chuck Liddell is associated with The Pit team and recently earned a purple belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

Liddell has a brother, Sean Liddell, who also competes in MMA, fighting last in the WEC. Liddell continues to train in San Luis Obispo, CA, where he attended college. Liddell was once romantically linked to one-time UFC host, pop artist, and Playboy model Willa Ford. He has two children, Trista, 10, and Cade, 9.  He and Cade appeared on the cover of ESPN The Magazine in May 2007. Chuck is engaged to his longtime girlfriend.

He is a part owner of two bars in Lincoln, Nebraska, Dillinger’s and NZone and the Mixed Martial Arts Social Networking Website, MMA Jacked

 Print media

On May 9, 2007, Liddell became the first UFC fighter to be on the cover of ESPN The Magazine. Liddell also released his autobiography, Iceman: My Fighting Life, on January 29, 2008.

MMA record

                  Andrei form his trade mark mouth gaurd to his devastating punching power was born in Minsk Belarus and where he became a young Sambo competitor. When he was younger, bullies often picked on him and beat him up. In 1994, when he was 14 years old, he finally had enough and started lifting weights to put on muscle and, he hoped, to help him deal with these bullies. Andrei only took up martial arts at the age of 16 having previously been interested in soccer. It was an interest in personal fitness and conditioning that led Arlovski to take an interest in combat sports.

Enrolling at the police academy in Minsk, Arlovski combined his interest in a career in law enforcement with his growing martial arts participation by taking up the required police defense course of Sambo, and quickly showed himself to be a highly competent Sambo exponent. In 1999, Andrei won the European Youth Sambo Championship and the World Youth Championship. Not long after, Andrei became the first Master of Sports, and then International Master of Sports. He also took a silver medal at the Sambo World Cup and another silver medal at the World Sambo Championship.

Arlovski began taking a greater interest in other martial arts, studying kickboxing and developing his striking skills to complement his Sambo-based grappling abilities.

MMA CAREER

At the age of 20, Arlovski began his professional MMA career at the Mix Fight M-1 in St Petersburg, Russia on April 9, 1999. It was a fairly inauspicious start, losing by KO to the un-heralded Viacheslav Datsik. Not deterred, Arlovski returned in 2000 to M-1 Global at the European Championships, taking the heavyweight crown with a submission victory and a KO victory.

UFC

Arlovski made his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut at “UFC 28: High Stakes”, defeating Aaron Brink by submission. He was then thrown in against top opposition early on in his UFC career, taking tough losses against future UFC heavyweight champion Ricco Rodriguez and heavyweight contender Pedro Rizzo. Despite those early defeats, wins over future British light heavyweight champion Ian Freeman and future IFL light heavyweight champion Vladimir Matyushenko propelled Arlovski back into the UFC elite.

A motorcycle accident injury suffered by UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir in 2004 led to the creation of an “interim heavyweight title”. It was decided that the two top heavyweight contenders would meet to declare the interim champion. On February 5, 2005 at “UFC 51: Super Saturday”, Arlovski would face the former heavyweight champion, Tim Sylvia. The two competitors were well known for their hard hitting style, with Sylvia having won ten of his last twelve fights by KO or TKO. Arlovski showed greater mobility and accuracy when striking. He connected with an overhand right and dropped Sylvia, following up with an ankle lock on the ground that forced Sylvia to tap out at 47 seconds of the first round, making Arlovski the new UFC interim heavyweight champion.

Arlovski defended his interim title on June 4, 2005 at “UFC 53: Heavy Hitters”, against Justin Eilers. Andrei won the bout by TKO in the first round. After the fight, it was revealed that Eilers suffered extensive injuries in this match including a badly broken nose, two broken hands and a complete ACL tear.

In October, Arlovski once again defended the interim heavyweight title at “UFC 55: Fury” against top contender Paul Buentello. Arlovski knocked out Buentello in 15 seconds of the opening round. On August 12, 2005, the UFC announced that it now recognized Arlovski as the undisputed heavyweight champion, as Frank Mir had not fully rehabilitated from his motorcycle accident.

In a rematch with Tim Sylvia at “UFC 59: Reality Check” on April 15, 2006, Arlovski knocked Sylvia down with a right hand punch early in the first round. Sylvia was able to protect himself and recovered almost immediately. While Arlovski tried to finish Sylvia with a right lead, Sylvia countered with a short right uppercut to the chin, knocking Arlovski to the mat. Sylvia followed up with punches on the ground until referee Herb Dean stopped the match at 2:43 of the first round.

The rubber match between Tim Sylvia and Arlovski took place on July 8, 2006 at “: BitterUFC 61 Rivals.” In what turned out to be a 5 round battle of attrition, neither fighter was able to KO the other, or even land any truly significant blows. In the end Sylvia won the fight by unanimous decision. It was later discovered that Arlovski had actually been significantly injured by a checked leg kick sometime in the second round which left him unable to throw kicks of his own or make any takedown attempts. Arlovski did not report his injury during the fight, as is required by UFC rules; indeed, the injury may never have been known except that it was leaked that Arlovski was having an MRI done on his leg a week after the fight. The injury caused his ankle and knee on his left leg to swell up to about four times its normal size. When confronted by a reporter about the MRI, Arlovski avoided responding directly and would only say “I do not want to talk about my injuries or look for any other excuses” Not too long after it was also revealed Sylvia had sustained an injury as he fainted at his hotel room, and upon hospital examination, doctors discovered a concussion undetected after the match.

Arlovski made his next appearance on December 30, 2006, at UFC 66: Liddell vs. Ortiz 2 against Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Márcio Cruz. After being taken down, he illegally kicked Cruz in the head. When the referee intervened, he decided, because of Cruz’s insistence, to allow both fighters to stay on the ground as opposed to standing them up, as is the general practice. Thereafter, Arloski struck Cruz with a strong blow to the chin, then continued beating Cruz with hammerfists until the fight was stopped.

Arlovski fought PRIDE Fighting Championships veteran and two-time world Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu champion Fabricio Werdum at UFC 70: Nations Collide and won by unanimous decision. Both fighters kept their distance for the majority of the fight, causing the referee to inform them at the beginning of the third round that he would remove a point from the first fighter to retreat in that round. Although Arlovski won the fight by unanimous decision, many boos could be heard from the crowd. After the fight Arlovski apologized to the fans for fighting for the full fifteen minutes.

After 11 months of inactivity, Arlovski made his return to the octagon for the final time at UFC 82: Pride of a Champion and defeated Jake O’Brien by TKO in round two. With this win, Arlovski gave O’Brien his first ever MMA loss. This was Arlovski’s final fight on his UFC contract.

Arlovski left the UFC with a record of 9-4 and an overall MMA record of 15-5.

Affliction

After leaving the UFC, Arlovski signed with the newly created MMA-promotion Affliction and participated in their inaugural event “Affliction: Banned” on July 19, 2008. He fought and defeated top ranked heavyweight fighter and former IFL heavyweight stand-out Ben Rothwell by KO in the final round of the fight, ending Rothwell’s 13 fight win streak and giving him his first defeat in over 3 years.

Originally scheduled to face former UFC heavyweight champion and top-ranked heavyweight Josh Barnett in the main event at Affliction’s second pay-per-view entitled “Affliction: Day of Reckoning” on October 11, 2008, the event however was rescheduled and Arlovski instead faced the first ever and last reigning IFL heavyweight champion Roy Nelson at “EliteXC: Heat” on October 4, 2008 in Sunrise, Florida in a co-promotion with EliteXC. Arlovski won the fight via KO in the second round and in the process became the only man to ever finish Nelson in his 16 fight MMA career.

Most recently, it was announced that Arlovski would be participating in the newly rescheduled “Affliction: Day of Reckoning” pay-per-view event in co-promotion with reknowned boxing promotion Golden Boy Promotions on January 24, 2009 in Anaheim, California at the Honda Center. He’ll be fighting former PRIDE heavyweight champion and current World Alliance of Mixed Martial Arts heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko for the WAMMA heavyweight belt.

 Boxing

Arlovski has been training with legendary boxing trainer Freddie Roach. Roach has trained many boxing champions such as Mike Tyson, Oscar De La Hoya, Bernard Hopkins and Manny Pacquiao.

 Personal life

Arlovski currently lives and trains in Chicago, Illinois. His boxing coach is Freddie Roach, and he trains in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with Dino Costeas at POW Martial Arts. He also has been training with UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture.

Arlovski dated Playboy Cybergirl Patrycja Mikula for over two years before going their separate ways.

Mixed martial arts record

OK, Chuck is starting to get old and with age you do become slower. Keep in mind though Chuck is still on of the best strikers in the UFC, and he is still one of most feared fighters in the UFC.

People all over the internet have been saying that fighters have finally dialed in on Chuck and that he is a one dimensional fighter. Chuck has been in the game for awhile now, but i ask then how come fighters are just barely dialing in on Chuck. If he is such a one dimensional fighter than how come he is considered one of the greatestest UFC fighters of all time.

Chuck said in the interview after the fight that he got caught by a lucky punch. I watched this fight over and over again and if you watch it it’s true Evans got a lucky punch. If Chuck would have caught Evans with his right handed upper cut their would be no doubt in my mind that Evans would have been on the ground. I give props to Evans for KOing a legend and i know he will go far, but I still consider Chuck one of the greatest UFC fighters of all time no matter how many more times he gets KOed.

http://ufcblogger.wordpress.com/2008/09/08/why-did-chuck-liddell-lose-to-rashad-evans/