One of the most recognized names in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, or UFC, is MMA Champ Chuck Liddell. Beginning his martial arts training at the young age of 12, he fights out of San Luis Obispo, California. Born and raised in that state, he wrestled at California Polytechnic State University, where he also majored in accounting. Before he began his full time fighting career with the UFC, he worked as a bouncer and bartender despite having an accounting degree.

1998 was the first time that we saw Chuck Liddell fight in the UFC. By 2002, he was the number one contender for the light heavyweight title. At that time the title was held by Tito Ortiz, who Liddell had trained with at the Pitfight Club. Apparently Ortiz refused to give Liddell a chance to fight him for the title, so instead he fought Randy Couture, who was a former heavyweight champion and a veteran of the UFC.

Unfortunately, he lost to Couture, and it was Couture who later beat Ortiz, becoming the new light heavyweight champion. In UFC 47, Liddell then was able to knock out Ortiz after he lost that title. In UFC 52, Chuck fought Couture once again. This time he was able to beat Couture, and he now was able to claim the light heavyweight title. After this fight, Randy Couture announced his retirement.

Liddell is known as The Iceman and is known for his unconventional fighting style. He is trained in Brazilian Ju Jitsu, kickboxing, wrestling, and Karate Tae Kwon Do, with a black belt. His style has been described as being very relaxed, but disconcerting to his opponents at the same time. This makes his actions difficult to anticipate.

His exciting fights are intense and exciting, which has contributed to the fighters popularity immensely with MMA and the UFC. What also helps his popularity is the fact that he tries to make sure that his wins are from knockouts rather than by judges decision as much as possible.

The UFC launched a reality series in 2005 called The Ultimate Fighter and Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell were chosen to be the coaches of the two teams of aspiring Mixed Martial Arts fighters. Both of the finalists from that show were members of Chucks team, and were given contracts to fight with the UFC. Forrest Griffin and Diego Sanchez were the winners of the series, and both became successful in their endeavors with the MMA. Chuck Liddell has no plans to retire anytime soon from the UFC.

For more information on Chuck Liddell, please visit our website.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 at 10:01 pm and is filed under Martial Arts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.