Chuck Liddell

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Chuck Liddell

Statistics
Nickname	The Iceman
Height	6 ft 2 in (188 cm)
Weight	205 lb (93 kg)
Nationality	American
Born	December 17, 1969
Fighting out of	San Luis Obispo, California
Town of birth	Santa Barbara, California
Fighting style	Kickboxing, Wrestling
Mixed martial arts record
Wins	19
By knockout	12
By submission	1
Losses	3
Draws	0

Charles David 'Chuck' Liddell (born December 17, 1969 in Santa Barbara, California), known as "The Iceman," is a mixed martial artist with a background in Koei-Kan Karate-Do, Kickboxing and Collegiate Wrestling. He currently fights in the Ultimate Fighting Championship and is the UFC Light Heavyweight Champion.

Primarily a striker, Liddell also has very good wrestling skills which he learned while attending Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where he earned a degree in business and accounting. He is a fearsome opponent with dominating stand-up, seemingly effortless combination striking (usually including his trademark "setup" punch, a looping overhand left hook), exceptional takedown defense and counter-punching. Liddell has endeared himself as a fan favorite and is one of the most popular UFC competitors. He is associated with the Pitfight team and was also featured in American Head Charge's music video for the song "Cowards". He recently earned a Purple Belt in Jiu-Jitsu.

1 Career
2 Personal life
3 Theme Music
4 Mixed martial arts record
5 Film career
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Career

Liddell's mixed martial arts journey began in 1998, when he earned a decision victory over a boxer named Noe Hernandez at UFC 17. From there, he went on to vanquish such opponents as Jose Landi-Jons, Guy Mezger and Kevin Randleman, while having his first career loss via arm-triangle choke to Jeremy Horn. Liddell also fought the skilled Middleweight champion, Murilo Bustamante; although Liddell received the judges' decision, some dispute the victory. Despite his winning streak and strong performances, it wasn't until he beat "The Phenom" Vitor Belfort at UFC 37.5 that he was considered to be among the top echelon within the light heavyweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

By 2002, Liddell was considered a perpetual #1 contender for the light heavyweight title with growing popularity and support from fans. The UFC tried to arrange a title bout with then champion Tito Ortiz but Ortiz kept citing scheduling conflicts which frustrated the UFC brass. To force Ortiz's hand, they created an Interim Light Heavyweight Championship and matched Liddell with experienced former heavyweight Randy Couture at UFC 43 for that title. This was considered Chuck's toughest fight yet, as evident with Couture's being able to neutralize Chuck's trademark powerful looping hooks with crisp straight punches. Randy eventually began taking Chuck down at will, and Chuck eventually lost via "ground-and-pound" stoppage.

After this demoralizing defeat, Liddell went to Japan to compete in the PRIDE 2003 Middleweight Grand Prix tournament as the UFC's representative. (PRIDE's middleweight division is comparable to UFCs light heavyweight division). After defeating Alistair Overeem in the tourney's first round, Liddell was defeated by Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, who is to date Liddell's last and sole unavenged career loss. Since that loss, Liddell has made it clear that he wishes to fight Jackson in a rematch before hanging up his gloves, claiming that if the UFC can't agree to a match with PRIDE FC's Quinton Jackson then Liddell would jump to PRIDE FC to finish off his career and defeat the only man to have fought Liddell and not lost.

Returning to the UFC, Chuck once again put himself in contention for a shot at the coveted light heavyweight title, preparing himself for a match against his controversial rival Tito Ortiz. Both men had trained at the Pitfight Club and experienced a falling-out that would escalate as Ortiz taunted Liddell. The falling out stemmed from Ortiz's unwillingness to give Liddell a title fight, even though Liddell was clearly one of the top contenders in the UFC. Eventually, after Ortiz lost the title to Randy Couture, the two clashed in a highly anticipated fight at UFC 47 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 Tito slapping himself on the head stating that he wanted more and when the round ended, Tito pushed John McCarthy out of his way into Chuck and yelled while Chuck exchanged some words. Shortly after the second round started, Liddell threw a flurry of punches which knocked Tito out for the victory. Since UFC 47, the bad blood between both fighters has been documented throughout the MMA world and media, and a rematch has been scheduled for UFC 66 which is set to take place on Saturday, December 30, 2006.

In early 2005, Liddell was seen on the inaugural season of The Ultimate Fighter, Spike TV's reality show featuring fighters new to the UFC competing for a UFC contract. Liddell served as coach of Team Liddell, while fellow fighter and then UFC Light Heavyweight champ Randy Couture coached Team Couture. The series was a success for both Spike TV and the UFC. Both of the winners of TUF, Diego Sanchez and Forrest Griffin, were members of Team Liddell, and they have gone onto wide-spread notoriety.

Liddell's highly anticipated and deserved rematch with Couture on April 16, 2005 at UFC 52 - a championship bout - ended in victory for Liddell via a first-round knockout. The fight was stopped at one point after Liddell's finger contacted Couture's eye, Couture was given time to recover, and the fight continued after Couture felt he was ready.

Before that rematch, Chuck was scheduled to defend his new title belt against fellow UFC veteran Jeremy Horn, at UFC 54, a matchup the UFC claimed was demanded by long-time fans of the sport since Horn gave Liddell his first loss. Throughout the bout, Liddell dominated Horn with aggressive punches, causing knockdowns in several rounds. Liddell's defensive wrestling ability, especially his renowned sprawl, stifled the bulk of Horn's offense, which was centered around 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 couldn't see, avenging his first career loss and defending his championship.

On February 4, 2006 at UFC 57, Liddell won, for a second time, a fight against Randy 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. His next defense, at UFC 62 on August 26, 2006, Liddell defended his belt against Renato Sobral, who he had defeated nearly 3 years ago, scoring a quick technical knockout victory a mere 95 seconds in the first round starting with a swift uppercut to Sobral.

It was announced at UFC 61 in July 2006 that if Liddell beat Sobral, he would fight PRIDE Middleweight (205 lb) Champion, Wanderlei Silva in November at Las Vegas. Since then though, Dana White said the fight would not be happening, citing Silva's recent loss to Mirko Filipovic.[1].

Liddell's next fight will be December 30 at UFC 66 against Tito Ortiz for the Light Heavyweight championship[2].

[edit] Personal life

Liddell was once romantically linked to one-time UFC host, multi-platinum pop artist, and Playboy model Willa Ford. He claims they currently are "just friends."

[edit] Theme Music

Here is a list of Chuck Liddell's previous entrance music:
Event	Song Title	Artist	Album
UFC 43	Too Cold	Vanilla Ice	Hard To Swallow
UFC 47	Valley Of Chrome	Cypress Hill	Skull & Bones
UFC 49	Intro	DMX	It's Dark And Hell Is Hot
UFC 52	Loyalty	American Head Charge	The Feeding
UFC 54	Loyalty	American Head Charge	The Feeding
UFC 57	Intro	DMX	It's Dark And Hell Is Hot
UFC 62	Intro	DMX	It's Dark And Hell Is Hot

[edit] Mixed martial arts record

19 Wins (12 KO's, 1 submission, 6 decisions), 3 Losses (2 KO's, 1 submission), 0 Draws.
Date	Result	Opponent	Event	Method	Round	Time	Notes
12/30/2006	TBD	Tito Ortiz	UFC 66	TBD	TBD	TBD	This match has yet to occur, it will take place in the MGM Grand Garden Arena at Las Vegas, Nevada on December 30.
08/26/2006	Win	Renato Sobral	UFC 62	TKO (Strikes)	1	1:35
02/04/2006	Win	Randy Couture	UFC 57	KO (Punch)	2	1:38
08/20/2005	Win	Jeremy Horn	UFC 54	TKO (Strikes)	4	2:46
04/16/2005	Win	Randy Couture	UFC 52	KO (Punch)	1	2:06	Won UFC Light Heavyweight Title
08/21/2004	Win	Vernon White	UFC 49	KO (Punch)	1	4:05
04/02/2004	Win	Tito Ortiz	UFC 47	KO (Punches)	2	0:38
11/09/2003	Loss	Quinton Jackson	PRIDE Final Conflict 2003	TKO (Strikes)	2	3:10	PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix Semifinal
08/10/2003	Win	Alistair Overeem	PRIDE Total Elimination 2003	KO (Strikes)	1	3:09	PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix Quarterfinal
06/06/2003	Loss	Randy Couture	UFC 43	TKO (Punches)	3	2:39	For the interim UFC Light Heavyweight Title
11/22/2002	Win	Renato Sobral	UFC 40	KO (Head Kick)	1	2:55
06/22/2002	Win	Vitor Belfort	UFC 37.5	Win Decision (Unanimous)	3	5:00
01/11/2002	Win	Amar Suloev	UFC 35	Decision (Unanimous)	3	5:00
09/28/2001	Win	Murilo Bustamante	UFC 33	Decision (Unanimous)	3	5:00
05/27/2001	Win	Guy Mezger	PRIDE 14	KO (Punch)	2	2:21
05/04/2001	Win	Kevin Randleman	UFC 31	KO (Punch)	1	1:18
12/16/2000	Win	Jeff Monson	UFC 29	Decision (Unanimous)	3	5:00
07/18/2000	Win	Steve Heath	IFC WC 9	KO (Kick to the Head)	2	5:39
09/24/1999	Win	Paul Jones	UFC 22	TKO (Strikes)	1	3:53
03/31/1999	Win	Kenneth Williams	NG 11	Submission (Rear Naked Choke)	2	3:10
03/05/1999	Loss	Jeremy Horn	UFC 19	Submission (Arm Triangle)	1	12:00
08/23/1998	Win	Jose Landi-Jons	IVC 6	Decision (Unanimous)	1	30:00
05/15/1998	Win	Noe Hernandez	UFC 17	Decision (Unanimous)	1	12:00

[edit] Film career

Title	Character	Year
HBO Series-Entourage	Himself-Chuck Liddell	2006
Bachelor Party Vegas	The Iceman	2006
Cradle to the Grave	Ultimate Fighter	2003
How High	Tough Guy	2001

He also appeared as "Graft" in the pilot episode of the TV series Blade: The Series, had a guest spot cameo in the first season of "Inked" on A&E, and made a brief appearance in the 1981 film The Postman Always Rings Twice with Jack Nicholson. He's the boy-scout that plays with a register, and is then scolded by Nicholson [3]. Chuck also had a very small part in the Jet Li Move Cradle 2 the Grave as one of the cage fighters along side Tito Ortiz and Randy Couture.