Chuck Liddell also known as the “Iceman” was born on December 17th 1969 in Santa Barbara California. At the age of 12yrs old Chuck began his training in Koei-Kan Karate. Already being quite the athlete Liddell captained both his football and wrestling teams at San Marcos high school.
Liddell went on to become a division A wrestler at Polytechnic State University. The name Iceman was given to Chuck because of his lack of nerves both before and during his fights.
Chuck’s first MMA victory came in his debut match against Noe Hernandez. Liddell also won his next match but then lost to Jeremy Horn in the first round due to an arm triangle choke hold. After this fight Chuck regrouped and hasn’t been submitted since.
Liddell went on to defeat ten fighters in a row which included KO’s on: Guy Mezger, Kevin Randleman, and Renato “Babalu” Sobral. But, after this fight Chuck began to hunger for the UFC belt.
Tito Ortiz was the UFC champion and considered Liddell a friend and preferred not to fight Chuck; but Liddell had other ideas. First he must defeat Randy “the natural” Couture who was a former UFC champion.
But, the UFC belt was not to be for Liddell this time around. Couture dominated the bout with take downs and ground and pound offense. Couture won the match on a TKO victory. After another loss to Quinton “Rampage” Jackson in Tokyo Japan, Liddell finally got his chance at the UFC belt; which was what he had been waiting for.
Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz; the match was on! The tension was intense as both of them entered the octagon. In other words both of them were ready to knock each other out. Needless to say Liddell won the fight via TKO as he dominated Ortiz.
After beating Ortiz Liddell knocked out Vernon “Tiger” White, and also Randy Couture in a rematch at 2:06 of round one. From there Chuck went on to defeat: Tito Ortiz, Randy Couture, and Sobral again.
Then on May 26th 2007 Liddell got another rematch he had been waiting for, but the outcome of this fight was not quite what he expected. Quinton Jackson was the only fighter who had defeated Liddell without a rematch, and Chuck was ready for revenge. The fight ended up being an upset with a first round TKO of the Iceman. Liddell’s next fight was also a loss to Keith Jardine on a split decision.
After the loss to Keith Jardine, Chuck Liddell went on to defeat Wanerlei Silva in UFC 79. Then in Liddell’s next bout he was knocked out by “Sugar” Rashad Evans at 1:51 of the second round in UFC 88. An overhand right (Liddell’s trademark punch) sent him unconscious to the canvas. Liddell’s knockout was dubbed as the “Knockout of the year” by the MMA website.
On April 18th at UFC 97 Chuck was again defeated by Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in Montreal Canada. After the fight the president of the UFC retired Liddell. Then on July 10th 2009 Chuck Liddell was inducted into the UFC hall of fame.
Chuck Liddell continues to train in San Luis Obispo CA. Liddell has two children, and appeared on the cover of ESPN magazine with his daughter Cade. Chuck has also released his autobiography: “My fighting life” on January 29 2008.
Liddell has made TV appearances in such shows as: Drill bit Taylor, MTV’s Punked, and HBO’s series – Entourage, Blade and Bachelor party Vegas. Chuck Liddell was also named as the “Most Dangerous Man” at Spike’s TV’s Guy’s Choice Awards. Chuck Liddell’s current record is 21-7, with 13 TKO’s.
Source of information:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Liddell
