Just My Thoughts: There’s No Middle Ground
Just My Thoughts
Mike Sloan Dec 30, 2006
Unless you’ve been dwelling underneath the floor of the Pacific
Ocean for the past few months, the grandest fight in the history of
North American mixed martial arts is about to take place
tonight.
The main event during this evening’s UFC 66 is, of course, the anticipated rematch between former training buddies Chuck Liddell (Pictures) and Tito Ortiz (Pictures).
But don’t worry: I’m not going to bore you with pointless drivel
you’ve been reading about for ages. Everybody knows by now about
Chuck and Tito used to be/maybe were friends and there was/wasn’t a
pact between the two and now how they truly hate each other/play it
up to cash in, etc.
Why would I waste not only your time by making you read the tired clichés but, most importantly, why would I waste my time writing about the same old stuff everybody and their mamas already know about?
With that said, the point of this column is to not only entertain the readers but to hopefully educate you guys about some aspects of this mega fight you may not be aware of. Hopefully I do the event justice and, most importantly, I hope you enjoy my scribbling.
Why was this fight made anyway?
Simple: Money. And lots of it. Gone are the days when the top tier fighters under contract to Zuffa were making slightly better than circus peanuts for paychecks. Both defending light heavyweight champion Liddell and former 205-pound king Ortiz will pocket at a ton with their pay-per-view percentages.
It’s a safe bet that both men will be able to feast for a decade, buy a few Ferraris, a pony and a slick IceLink Watch with some dough to spare. Too bad neither man will be able to land that ultra elusive Playstation 3, though.
While their purses not exactly A-Rod numbers, the size of the purses for the two main event combatants is actually much larger in scale than Tyson/De La Hoya/Holyfield numbers. The reason I say that is because even when the aforementioned boxers were pocketing several million per fight, the undercard fighters were easily walking out of the arenas with anywhere from several thousand to a few hundred thousand apiece (for the televised pay-per-view fighters).
With UFC 66, the vast majority of the undercard fighters on the card will be lucky to walk home with anything in the ballpark of $20,000, thusly making Liddell and Ortiz’ purses significantly richer in terms of percentages and scale.
But forget for a second about how much the gladiators who actually do combat will earn — it’s all about how much Zuffa as a company will store into its bank account.
Zuffa doesn’t have the ability to scoop up small rival organizations for no reason in case you have forgotten. The mad scientists who are always hard at work behind the scenes at Zuffa have created a virtual monster and by pitting the sport’s two biggest names in America against one another is a shoe-in for millions in profits. It’s that rare fight that makes sense on all sides of the Dungeons and Dragons die, and one that will fill the wallets of everybody involved.
Who will win and why?
This is not something I ordinarily do in my columns, but this time around I’m going all Hirth on this fight. The fight, in all actuality, is the easiest to call — provided one actually has knowledge of both fighters inside and out.
Obviously if Ortiz decides to go toe-to-toe with Chuck like “Babalu” did a few months ago, it’ll be a short night and Tito will be trying to catch those pesky birds flying around his head. After what happened the first time they locked horns, Ortiz would have to be a fool to try and beat Liddell at his own game a second time.
Tito isn’t an idiot, so I fully expect him to try and stay away from that concussive right hand of Liddell.
The former champ’s only surefire chance of victory is to take his time and make Chuck come to him. Chuck is a murderous counter puncher and like Felix Trinidad excels when his opponents press the action.
From there, the openings occur and quickly the lights are turned out. Tito should stay back, goad Chuck into coming forward and then pop off rapid-fire combos.
Feinting shots is also a must and when Tito finally does go for a takedown, he has to do with lightning speed. He tends to telegraph his shots and when any fighter telegraphs a takedown attempt, Liddell will stuff it every time.
Looking back at their first encounter will reveal that Tito only attempted one feeble takedown. He was trying to implore the savvy Couture/Jackson strategy of making Liddell come forward by peppering him with meager strikes to keep him off-balance. Ortiz was far too overzealous and appeared tense. His punches were stiff and his one shot for a takedown resulted in an oafish-looking Tito stumbling forward.
Tito’s stand-up game has never been world class and unless he turns into the second coming of “Cro Cop” he’ll have a hard time busting up Chuck’s face.
If he goes all out and tries for takedown after takedown, Ortiz will just tire himself out, which will undoubtedly lead to his demise. Tito has to drag Chuck into rounds four and five, and to do this he’d have to be patient and make Chuck follow him around and miss his awkward left hooks and loopy right hands.
Tito’s stamina is inhuman and if he tires the defending champ, then the opportunities for takedowns will present themselves. “Rampage” and Couture both were successful and wound up stopping Chuck after he became winded and gassed out.
All Chuck has to do is make Ortiz engage with him. Tito’s biggest flaw is his striking ability and if he can sucker him into a slugfest, it’ll be an easy night.
As long as Liddell is fully trained and can go the full five rounds, he’ll be dangerous the entire time. He can knock anybody out at any time, provided he isn’t gasping for air like a beached beluga. Tito never came close to taking Chuck off his feet the first time and as long as Liddell can stay off his back, it honestly should be a relatively easy night. Ortiz can’t hurt Chuck with punches, so the fate of the fight clearly rests in the hands of Liddell.
A tale of fate
When the cage door slams shut and is locked behind them, both Tito and Chuck will have quite a few questions to answer. If that weren’t enough, each fighter’s fate, for the most part, rests solely on the outcome of this much-ballyhooed showdown between arguably the two most popular fighters in American mixed martial arts history.
Said fate is much more evident in the case of Ortiz than Liddell but that’s not to say that “The Iceman” can afford another loss on his stellar Hall of Fame ledger.
Ortiz has already suffered a number of defeats in his storied career. The only way his legacy can survive another loss at the hands of his Mohawked adversary to not only electrify the sold-out crowd with a fight-of-the-year type of performance, but also put Liddell into the sort of peril he hasn’t faced since Jackson crushed him some three years ago.
Only then can another Ortiz survive as one of the sport’s brightest and best fighters. If Liddell winds up ousting “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” in a similar fashion that he did back in April 2004, then the future would be bleak for Ortiz.
For the most part, fans, media and so-called experts are aligning themselves with the defending UFC light heavyweight champion. The vast majority of these folks are predicting another Liddell victory, typically by knockout.
I stand firm in agreement, as I whole-heartedly believe Chuck will not only prevail, but he’ll accomplish yet another stirring highlight reel knockout.
Liddell will quickly ascend further up that proverbial mountainside into all-time great status and, for the time being at least, Ortiz will tumble down into a realm of uncertainty.
While both men will score more money for this fight alone than what the majority of professional MMA contenders/prospects will make in one fiscal year combined, this fight is probably going to go down in the debate books as the most dangerous challenge of Ortiz’ career — a fight he arguably should have avoided provided he cares as much about his legacy as he does about bleaching his hair before contests.
Liddell is already a lock for the UFC’s Hall of Fame. He’s knocked out some of the best the sport had to offer throughout his career, including current Hall inductee and former UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight champion Randy Couture (Pictures) twice.
Of course, Liddell has also put to sleep superb fighters Guy Mezger (Pictures), former UFC heavyweight king Kevin Randleman (Pictures), Renato Sobral (Pictures) (twice), Jeremy Horn (Pictures), Alistair Overeem (Pictures) and has points wins over former UFC middleweight monarch Murilo Bustamante (Pictures) and former UFC heavyweight title challenger Jeff Monson (Pictures).
His résumé speaks for itself and while Liddell doesn’t exactly hope a loss falls into his lap, he can assuredly afford one much more than his flamboyant foe.
Ortiz, on the other hand, can’t afford a loss, especially if it’s by knockout. Aside from current PRIDE middleweight champion and all-time great Wanderlei Silva (Pictures) and arguably Evan Tanner (Pictures), Ortiz actually hasn’t beaten anybody who anyone currently considers “elite” or at least used to be “elite.”
In fact, it can be argued that the popular California kid hasn’t truly lived up to his potential. If Ortiz is blasted out of the Octagon a second time by Liddell, he and his fans can forget about him ever being considered an all-time great. All-time popular? Probably. But elite-level one of the greatest in history? No chance.
The main event during this evening’s UFC 66 is, of course, the anticipated rematch between former training buddies Chuck Liddell (Pictures) and Tito Ortiz (Pictures).
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Why would I waste not only your time by making you read the tired clichés but, most importantly, why would I waste my time writing about the same old stuff everybody and their mamas already know about?
It’s rare times like these that I actually do some good
old-fashioned community service for the good of this country.
With that said, the point of this column is to not only entertain the readers but to hopefully educate you guys about some aspects of this mega fight you may not be aware of. Hopefully I do the event justice and, most importantly, I hope you enjoy my scribbling.
Why was this fight made anyway?
Simple: Money. And lots of it. Gone are the days when the top tier fighters under contract to Zuffa were making slightly better than circus peanuts for paychecks. Both defending light heavyweight champion Liddell and former 205-pound king Ortiz will pocket at a ton with their pay-per-view percentages.
It’s a safe bet that both men will be able to feast for a decade, buy a few Ferraris, a pony and a slick IceLink Watch with some dough to spare. Too bad neither man will be able to land that ultra elusive Playstation 3, though.
While their purses not exactly A-Rod numbers, the size of the purses for the two main event combatants is actually much larger in scale than Tyson/De La Hoya/Holyfield numbers. The reason I say that is because even when the aforementioned boxers were pocketing several million per fight, the undercard fighters were easily walking out of the arenas with anywhere from several thousand to a few hundred thousand apiece (for the televised pay-per-view fighters).
With UFC 66, the vast majority of the undercard fighters on the card will be lucky to walk home with anything in the ballpark of $20,000, thusly making Liddell and Ortiz’ purses significantly richer in terms of percentages and scale.
But forget for a second about how much the gladiators who actually do combat will earn — it’s all about how much Zuffa as a company will store into its bank account.
Zuffa doesn’t have the ability to scoop up small rival organizations for no reason in case you have forgotten. The mad scientists who are always hard at work behind the scenes at Zuffa have created a virtual monster and by pitting the sport’s two biggest names in America against one another is a shoe-in for millions in profits. It’s that rare fight that makes sense on all sides of the Dungeons and Dragons die, and one that will fill the wallets of everybody involved.
Who will win and why?
This is not something I ordinarily do in my columns, but this time around I’m going all Hirth on this fight. The fight, in all actuality, is the easiest to call — provided one actually has knowledge of both fighters inside and out.
Obviously if Ortiz decides to go toe-to-toe with Chuck like “Babalu” did a few months ago, it’ll be a short night and Tito will be trying to catch those pesky birds flying around his head. After what happened the first time they locked horns, Ortiz would have to be a fool to try and beat Liddell at his own game a second time.
Tito isn’t an idiot, so I fully expect him to try and stay away from that concussive right hand of Liddell.
The former champ’s only surefire chance of victory is to take his time and make Chuck come to him. Chuck is a murderous counter puncher and like Felix Trinidad excels when his opponents press the action.
From there, the openings occur and quickly the lights are turned out. Tito should stay back, goad Chuck into coming forward and then pop off rapid-fire combos.
Feinting shots is also a must and when Tito finally does go for a takedown, he has to do with lightning speed. He tends to telegraph his shots and when any fighter telegraphs a takedown attempt, Liddell will stuff it every time.
Looking back at their first encounter will reveal that Tito only attempted one feeble takedown. He was trying to implore the savvy Couture/Jackson strategy of making Liddell come forward by peppering him with meager strikes to keep him off-balance. Ortiz was far too overzealous and appeared tense. His punches were stiff and his one shot for a takedown resulted in an oafish-looking Tito stumbling forward.
Tito’s stand-up game has never been world class and unless he turns into the second coming of “Cro Cop” he’ll have a hard time busting up Chuck’s face.
If he goes all out and tries for takedown after takedown, Ortiz will just tire himself out, which will undoubtedly lead to his demise. Tito has to drag Chuck into rounds four and five, and to do this he’d have to be patient and make Chuck follow him around and miss his awkward left hooks and loopy right hands.
Tito’s stamina is inhuman and if he tires the defending champ, then the opportunities for takedowns will present themselves. “Rampage” and Couture both were successful and wound up stopping Chuck after he became winded and gassed out.
All Chuck has to do is make Ortiz engage with him. Tito’s biggest flaw is his striking ability and if he can sucker him into a slugfest, it’ll be an easy night.
As long as Liddell is fully trained and can go the full five rounds, he’ll be dangerous the entire time. He can knock anybody out at any time, provided he isn’t gasping for air like a beached beluga. Tito never came close to taking Chuck off his feet the first time and as long as Liddell can stay off his back, it honestly should be a relatively easy night. Ortiz can’t hurt Chuck with punches, so the fate of the fight clearly rests in the hands of Liddell.
A tale of fate
When the cage door slams shut and is locked behind them, both Tito and Chuck will have quite a few questions to answer. If that weren’t enough, each fighter’s fate, for the most part, rests solely on the outcome of this much-ballyhooed showdown between arguably the two most popular fighters in American mixed martial arts history.
Said fate is much more evident in the case of Ortiz than Liddell but that’s not to say that “The Iceman” can afford another loss on his stellar Hall of Fame ledger.
Ortiz has already suffered a number of defeats in his storied career. The only way his legacy can survive another loss at the hands of his Mohawked adversary to not only electrify the sold-out crowd with a fight-of-the-year type of performance, but also put Liddell into the sort of peril he hasn’t faced since Jackson crushed him some three years ago.
Only then can another Ortiz survive as one of the sport’s brightest and best fighters. If Liddell winds up ousting “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” in a similar fashion that he did back in April 2004, then the future would be bleak for Ortiz.
For the most part, fans, media and so-called experts are aligning themselves with the defending UFC light heavyweight champion. The vast majority of these folks are predicting another Liddell victory, typically by knockout.
I stand firm in agreement, as I whole-heartedly believe Chuck will not only prevail, but he’ll accomplish yet another stirring highlight reel knockout.
Liddell will quickly ascend further up that proverbial mountainside into all-time great status and, for the time being at least, Ortiz will tumble down into a realm of uncertainty.
While both men will score more money for this fight alone than what the majority of professional MMA contenders/prospects will make in one fiscal year combined, this fight is probably going to go down in the debate books as the most dangerous challenge of Ortiz’ career — a fight he arguably should have avoided provided he cares as much about his legacy as he does about bleaching his hair before contests.
Liddell is already a lock for the UFC’s Hall of Fame. He’s knocked out some of the best the sport had to offer throughout his career, including current Hall inductee and former UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight champion Randy Couture (Pictures) twice.
Of course, Liddell has also put to sleep superb fighters Guy Mezger (Pictures), former UFC heavyweight king Kevin Randleman (Pictures), Renato Sobral (Pictures) (twice), Jeremy Horn (Pictures), Alistair Overeem (Pictures) and has points wins over former UFC middleweight monarch Murilo Bustamante (Pictures) and former UFC heavyweight title challenger Jeff Monson (Pictures).
His résumé speaks for itself and while Liddell doesn’t exactly hope a loss falls into his lap, he can assuredly afford one much more than his flamboyant foe.
Ortiz, on the other hand, can’t afford a loss, especially if it’s by knockout. Aside from current PRIDE middleweight champion and all-time great Wanderlei Silva (Pictures) and arguably Evan Tanner (Pictures), Ortiz actually hasn’t beaten anybody who anyone currently considers “elite” or at least used to be “elite.”
In fact, it can be argued that the popular California kid hasn’t truly lived up to his potential. If Ortiz is blasted out of the Octagon a second time by Liddell, he and his fans can forget about him ever being considered an all-time great. All-time popular? Probably. But elite-level one of the greatest in history? No chance.
