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According to UFC Boss Dana White Chuck Liddell ‘s loss at UFC 115 was his last. This loss was marked his 5th out of the past 6 fights. What is it about MMA’s most well known fighter that’s pushing him to retirement? Well, first we know this sport isn’t for the aged. Only the young and strong cam survive and with Chuck now in his 40s he’s pushing the limit. The main reason Liddell can no longer compete is he has a glass chin. There is no way the Iceman can be the Iceman without a chin. A couple of years ago he could have arguably had the best chin in the business. What happened? Who knows The fact is everyone gets old and some guys just aren’t going to be able to what they used to. This sport is not for the weary. It’s not even for the middle aged. Liddel needs to know when it’s time to hang it up.

I think its hard for anyone to know when to quit. When the feeling of a KO is still fresh in your mind it can be very hard to admit its over. If you look at Michael Jordan he had the hardest time out of almost any athlete to know when to quit. There is one person however that Chuck Liddell sees in his dreams. One person that the Iceman just can’t let go of No, I’m not talking about Tito Ortiz. I’m talking about the Natural. Yes Randy Couture. Couture was not only the biggest obstacle to Liddell winning the Light Heavyweight title but he has also been the most successful fighter over the age of 40 and at this age he defeated Liddell more than once. The question Liddell is asking himself is. Why not me? Why can’t Liddell be a factor in the UFC as long as Couture has? The reason is Couture is a master game planner. Couture knows how to take his age, his strengths and his weaknesses as well as his opponents and turn then into a master game plan. Liddell on the other hand simply does not. The Iceman reminds me of a quote I hard in a movie once. “He comes from a much earlier version of the Matrix.” And Chuck’s fighting style comes from a much earlier earlier version of the UFC. Chuck is simply unable to adapt his fighting style to adapt for a glass chin.

I still believe he has one fight left though and as I foreshadowed earlier his last fight just might be Tito Ortiz. If this is the case, it will be a complete 180 degree turn from what Dana White has already said. If we have seen the last of the Iceman:

Chuck, you are and will always be a champion. Thank you for everything you have done and everything you will do for the sport.

My falling in love with MMA was a gradual process involving Spike TV and the UFC. I still don’t have a lot of knowledge about the other organizations like Strike force, WEC, Pride etc. However, since Zuffa has bought the WEC and it’s basically become a UFC type org the marketing has expanded into the mainstream channels that the UFC uses. I had taken the time to research Jose Aldo and Urijah Faber and decided that this really was going to be a good bout. What I didn’t know was that there was going to be so many good light weight fights. We always enjoy it when two good lightweights go at it because they don’t get gassed as easy. They have a lot of energy and the can end up quite action packed. This event proved that to its fullest extent.

This event took place at the Arco Arena in Sacarento Cali. or as everyone calls it, “sac town” on April 24th . Some notable bouts were ANTONIO BANUELOS VS. SCOTT JORGENSE, which definitely earned fight of the night and will be a talked about fight for a long time. Both of these guys left everything they had in the cage. ANTHONY NJOKUANI VS. SHANE ROLLER was a fun fight to watch as Roller came in and dominated submitting FTW with a rear-naked choke in first rd. Also, MIKE BROWN VS. MANNY GAMBURYAN really got the crowd going. You could tell both of these guys wanted it really bad. Brown was trying to be patient and stalk his opponent. When he did attack he took a big counter that took him out. After he got knocked out he got up and started protesting the stoppage. He was clearly gone. An exciting KO before the main event.

 JOSE ALDO VS. URIJAH FABER Was a good solid fight by two fighters with a lot of heart, especially Faber. Aldo basically picked Faber apart for five rounds. Faber certainly wasn’t able to out-strike him and he couldn’t take him down. Faber looked worse as every round went by. Aldo was hitting Faber with these devastating leg kicks. The pictures posted on Urijah’s twitter of his leg after the fight were absolutely amazing. He took a lot of punishment but wasn’t able to do a whole lot of damage to Aldo. Even though the fight was pretty lop sided I believe this fight still lived up to the hype. It will be interesting to see where Zuffa takes the WEC in the future.

A great night of fights. This is my first MMA post in awhile. It seems that @danawhite had decided to have multiple events per month. This deluded the quality of the bouts and I really didn’t feel like posting on every event as they weren’t worthy. However with two title fights and some of my favorite fighters this one was definitely worth it. I didn’t know the fighters on the earlier bouts. I had never seen them before with the exception of Jim Miller. I am not an MMA expert and I don’t research fighters I just know about the ones that I like. I don’t like to see two guys go to the ground in the first round and sit in each others guard the whole time either but the fights tonight were all pretty good.

Mir v Carwin – I had seen Carwin fight before he seemed like a solid fighter in the past. He doesn’t have a very good personality but he is definitely an athlete. Frank had only been beaten by Brock Lesnar in his last six fights. If it weren’t for BL then he would be a long time reigning Heavy Weight Champion and anyone who had come close to him was easily taken out. I really thought he had a strong chance in this fight. I was really surprised to see Carwin drop him like he did. I will say that in the beginning of the fight it was slow to start for the first several seconds. No one wanted to strike first. I noticed that Frank gave in and made the first strike and he payed for it. It was a sign that he was falling into Carwin’s game plan because he gave in. I remember thinking that it wasn’t good and that he should be careful. Then boom a big KO by Carwin. I’m still really surprised there are so many Carwin fans out there. I really like Frank Mir. I think he’s a good guy and a good fighter. I don’t like seeing him lose but I want to see someone else have a shot at BJ because I dislike him more.

GSP v Dan Hardy

As I posted on twitter, I really didn’t see why Hardy was fighting GSP. This guy did not have a resume to go up against him. What we saw was almost depressing. It would have been easier for Hardy if he would have just lost but instead to just survive for five rounds?  You can see he has heart/character and all that but to get beaten for that long can’t help you emotionally in my opinion. GSP was obviously frustrated because he couldn’t finish the fight. I think it made GSP a little more human and it really made him more beatable. To be what @danawhite calls the best p2p fighter in the game today you would think he could submit someone like Hardy. A lack luster fight however if I would have known how it was going to turn our I would have still watched because who wants to miss a performance by GSP?