My thoughts on Chuck's slump

Underground
1

I really and truly believe the reason why Chuck is struggling right now is because he has forgotten how to effectively fight against guys with power.

Look at his last few opponents:
Keith Jardine
Quinton Jackson
Tito Ortiz
Renato Sobral
Randy Couture
Jeremy Horn
Vernon White

with the exception of Jardine and Jackson, none of those guys have exceptional power in their punches. I believe this largely birthed the Chuck we see now: the counter puncher. And that style was fine, and very effective. Against those guys who couldn't hurt him.

You can afford to counter punch with guys like Ortiz and Sobral. You can eat a shot from them if you're Liddell, because more than likely, it will not do any real damage to you. You CANNOT do this against Quinton Jackson. When that guy hits you, it hurts, and it hurts badly. You also CANNOT do this against Keith Jardine, who has extremely effective leg kicks and a generally herky jerky style that keeps you out of your normal range. Chuck didn't even check Jardine's leg kicks; he was just confident in his old strategy that eventually Jardine would stick his head in there and get popped with one of his bombs. Unfortunately for Chuck (and I like him a lot), you CANNOT do this with Wanderlei Silva. If your intention is to counter punch with him, your night will not go well. Silva's punches HURT and hurt badly. Even Tito Ortiz admitted that. Chuck has to go back to his true kickboxing roots and train differently for these guys. Training for Silva and Jackson is different than training for Ortiz and Sobral. These guys he's now fighting aren't relatively weak punchers that just want to take him down. These guys want to punch him in the face and win. Chuck isn't used to fighting like that anymore. Hopefully he has realized that.

Lets take a look at Chuck's record, for historical purposes. Fighters who I consider to be dangerous strikers are noted with *.

Chuck Liddell (20-5)
9/22/07 - *L, Keith Jardine
5/26/07 - *L, Quinton Jackson (Loses UFC LHW Title)
12/30/06 - W, Tito Ortiz (Defends UFC LHW Title)
8/26/06 - W, Renato Sobral (Defends UFC LHW Title)
2/4/06 - W, Randy Couture (Defends UFC LHW Title)
8/20/05 - W, Jeremy Horn (Defends UFC LHW Title)
4/16/05 - W, Randy Couture (Wins UFC LHW Title)
8/21/04 - W, Vernon White
4/2/04 - W, Tito Ortiz
11/9/03 - *L, Quinton Jackson
8/10/03 - W, Alistair Overeem (Yes, I don't consider Overeem dangerous on the feet...he has KOed no one of note except an injured Sergei)
6/6/03 - L, Randy Couture (Loses UFC Interim LHW Title decision match)
11/22/02 - W, Renato Sobral
6/22/02 - W, Vitor Belfort
1/11/02 - *W, Amar Suloev (Suloev is 185 lbs)
9/28/01 - W, Murilo Bustamante
5/27/01 - W, Guy Mezger
5/4/01 - W, Kevin Randleman
12/16/00 - W, Jeff Monson
7/18/00 - W, Steve Heath
9/24/99 - W, Paul Jones
3/31/99 - W, Ken Williams
3/5/99 - L, Jeremy Horn
8/23/98 - *W, Pele (Pele is 185 lbs)
5/15/98 - W, Noe Hernandez

As you can see, Chuck's track record against natural 205 lbs fighters with great standing skills is not that good. He beat up on grapplers for years, but now the division landscape has changed. Will his kickboxing ability stand up to the skills of some of the more notable strikers in the division? We'll see. Good luck to Chuck and Wanderlei on the 29th. They'll put on a good show.

2

chuck usually caught guys coming in at him. kieth was smart enough to keen his head tucked down most of the time, so he avoided the ko. quinton caught him just right. thats bound to happen when u stand and trade with all your oponents in tiny gloves

3

jardine had a good gameplan and won the fight but his face looked like it
went thru a meat grinder. there is no way chuck was pumped for his fight
against Jardine. He was not mentally prepared to fight and he only lost
by split decision. He was definitely looking past Jardine and he just
wanted to fight and have fun.... not a good gameplan. Rampage caught
chuck and took advantage chucks hands being down by his hips. Chuck
has stated that having a fight against Wand is going to motivate him.

Chuck will be back

4

I agree, max power. So basically Chuck will keep on doing his thing whether his opponents "have power" or not. Okay, great. Thanks.

5

Pretty good points but nothing really new, imho. You could jsut as well say he lost to better strikers. Jardine didnt really show power against Chuck. Rampage has power but could just be consider a better striker.

Suloev is good but more technical. Vitor probably has more "power" than Suloev (esp considering that Amar is a MW) but you did not star Vitor. Busta also has power, though more so at MW, he hasnt really hurt anyone big at LHW.

I think what the Chuck critics have been saying turned out: that he was living off beating grapplers and not that that wasnt great, no matter what the style, he beat top guys but maybe not so diverse stylistically.

6

TTT

7

my thought on chuck slump...... HE WAS EXPOSED!

since becoming champ he was the most protected fighter since bisbing. he only faught wrestlers and BJJ guys. then he faught some guys who know how to throw punches effectivly standing up and he lost. Wanderlei will do the same. wand via ko 1st round.

8

Good read but would you have consider Jardine a particularly good/powerful striker even if Chuck had beat him?

9

I thought this was going to be how he sits in his chair when getting lapdances. My bad.

10

^^^^^i think this could poss have something to do with chacks downfall^^^^ this & the alchohol N drugs^^^

11

that and the fact that he partys way to much esp when training for a fight

12

After watching the fight with Jardine a second time I think it could have been a draw or called either way. Chuck had him rocked in teh first but did not follow up. Jardine took a lot of punishment and Chuck rocked him shortly after Jardine knocked him down in the second. Jardines face looked pretty bad after the fight.

But I agree Chuck needs to step it up if he wants get the belt ever again

13

Injuries are what have stopped Chuck. Chuck has been fighting MMA for 11 years, and has never pulled out of a fight because of an injury. He was injured enough to pull out of a lot of fights. His knees an shoulders are wrecked. He'd have to have a few operations and a lot of rehab to fix his body, but he doesn't have the time. It has changed the way he has to train, to avoid getting hurt. Add to that the partying and the loss of the hunger and drive, to train and fight, and that's what's wrong with Chuck. Anybody that says Chuck was protected is just a retard. Wandy and Shogun would of had a hard time with LHW Randy, and a prime Tito and Babalu. If Shogun had a hard time wrestling with Forest, he's have a really tough time with those 3.