There have been lots of rumors over the years about a potential comeback of legendary former UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell but now it seems like “The Iceman” is serious about returning to MMA. The UFC Hall of Famer officially announced that he’s coming out of retirement on the recent episode of the MMA Hour:
“I will fight again,”
“It’s a real thing. They’re working on it.”
"I will fight again," says former UFC champion @ChuckLiddell. "I miss it, I never stopped missing it." Watch #TheMMAHour live: https://t.co/11sYrEm5Ug pic.twitter.com/JCyBakAYHV
— MMA Fighting (@MMAFighting) May 14, 2018
There has news floating from past few weeks that Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya revealed that he’s getting back into MMA business, also indicated that he wants to make a trilogy fight between “The Iceman” and longtime rival Tito Ortiz.
Last week, Tito Ortiz also made an announcement via social media post stating that he’s also returning to MMA for Chuck Liddell trilogy.
Liddell said, the deal is not finalized yet, but we are underway to make this fight to go down possibly in November in either Las Vegas or California.
As far as the opponent concerns, Ortiz sits on the top list, but Liddell made it clears he’ll return to Octagon with or without “Huntington Beach Bad Boy”
“It does not hinge on Tito’s participation,” Liddell said.
“I miss it. I never stopped missing it. And I kinda hadn’t really thought about it much. And then when he brought it up and we started getting going, and I started training and I started doing stuff again, getting ready to try to take this on, it made me go, ‘You know what, what if he pulls out? Am I not going to fight? Am I going to do all of this and not fight?’ Oh no, we had to have somebody backing up, and if it doesn’t work out with him, I’m [still] going to give it a shot. It’ll be somebody else, one of the guys from my past probably, most likely, and we’ll see where I’m at.”
Liddell, 48, hasn’t fought since a knockout loss to Rich Franklin at UFC 115 in 2010. After this loss “The Iceman” announced his retirement and took an office job as the UFC’s Vice President of Business Development.
Both Ortiz and Liddell possess MMA’s most heated rivalries, fighting twice at UFC 47 in 2004 and UFC 66 in 2006, Of course, Liddell has squashed Ortiz in both Octagon outings.
UFC president Dana White publicly stated he isn’t fond of the idea of Chuck Liddell fighting again, citing health concerns. But Liddell isn’t worried about those concerns from his former boss.
“With all due respect, yeah, leave it alone. Leave me alone,” Liddell said. “You promised something to me for a long time and it’s gone. But it’s not even that. I want to fight. I miss everything. Everyone always asks me, ‘Hey man, this must be a lot better than fighting?’ No, no, I still — that was my favorite thing. My wife asks me, ‘How do you like doing that?’ My wife asks me that all the time. I still miss it. I miss everything. I miss cutting weight. I miss everything that goes with it, everything, the good, the bad. It’s all of it. I mean, I miss hanging out the gym, going and working out every day. It’s fun to me.
“It’s [White’s] opinion. It’s how he feels, and that’s okay with me. You’re entitled to your opinion and what you think. Everybody’s entitled to their opinion. If I can’t fight, if I don’t feel like I can perform or go out there and perform, I wouldn’t. But I feel like I can still perform, especially enough to beat Tito, so I’ll be ready.”
Liddell is also expressed interest to lock horns with former light heavyweight champ Jon Jones down the road if he earns it.
How many of you excited to see Ortiz vs Liddell trilogy?
