Sherdog.com Preview: Liddell-Ortiz II Main Card
Liddell vs. Ortiz
Dec 28, 2006
Chuck
Liddell (Pictures) vs. Tito Ortiz (Pictures)
Well they had to fight again. Or at least Zuffa needed another main event and felt it was time for them to meet again. Liddell has been mowing down opponents since the first time he met Tito and he hasn’t gone the distance in four years. In the same time span, Ortiz has won a series of questionable decisions and stopped an aging Ken Shamrock (Pictures) in consecutive meetings. It is a fight people want to see so I understand booking it, but title shots shouldn’t go the way of NFL Pro Bowl selections and turn into popularity contests.
Chuck Liddell (Pictures) was a collegiate wrestler at Cal
Poly San Luis Obispo. He won the IFC light heavyweight belt and
held a North American national kickboxing title (20-2 record in
kickboxing) before winning his first UFC belt in April 2005.
Liddell carries a 19-3-0 record in MMA and trains with John Hackleman and the Pit Fight Team. “The Iceman” moved in and out of the UFC, racking up wins against the likes of Jose Landi-Jons (Pictures), Kevin Randleman (Pictures), Murilo Bustamante (Pictures) and Amar Suloev (Pictures) before meeting Vitor Belfort (Pictures).
Liddell finally met Ortiz in April 2004 and put all the questions to rest, knocking out Tito in the second round; it set up a rematch with Couture for the title. Not content to sit and wait for his shot.
In the rematch for the UFC light heavyweight title at UFC 52, Liddell knocked out Couture in just two minutes. Last August Liddell settled another old score, laying a beating on Jeremy Horn (Pictures). It took nearly five rounds to put him away, but Horn had problems seeing Chuck’s punches and the fight was stopped. Continuing on his rematch tour in ‘06, Liddell stopped Couture with strikes and finished off “Babalu” Sobral with strikes in the opening stanza.
Tito Ortiz (Pictures), 15-4-0, is the former UFC light heavyweight champion.
Ortiz wrestled at Golden West College and Cal Bakersfield before coming to the UFC as a sparring partner for David “Tank” Abbott. Tito then entered the UFC 13 tournament as an alternate with amateur status and beat Wes Albritton. He got in the final bout due to an injury to Enson Inoue and fought Guy Mezger (Pictures). It looked like victory for Ortiz but a cut stoppage allowed Mezger a second opportunity at victory and Tito was guillotine choked for the win.
After stopping Jerry Bohlander, Ortiz faced champion Frank Shamrock (Pictures) in a classic UFC contest. Ortiz would lose, but it propelled him onto the next stage of his career by improving his overall training philosophy. He won the UFC 199-lb. title in Japan in a lengthy and unimpressive bout with Wanderlei Silva (Pictures) at UFC 25.
Ortiz would defeat overmatched opponents, including Yuki Kondo (Pictures) and Elvis Sinosic (Pictures), before out-pointing a game Vladimir Matyushenko (Pictures).
Ken Shamrock (Pictures) finally met Ortiz at UFC 40 and was able to drop Tito, but the bout was eventually stopped as Shamrock was taking heavy abuse. Ortiz lost his title to Randy Couture (Pictures), and has since fought in Couture and Liddell’s shadow.
In 2006 Tito faced Forrest Griffin (Pictures) and despite starting out strong, Ortiz met his match in rounds two and three but the judges gave the win to Tito. Ortiz and “The World’s Most Dangerous Man” met twice more. Ken was healed from his injuries and thought he could finally press Ortiz. Shamrock was wrong. In back-to-back first-round embarrassments, Shamrock was dropped and pounded by Tito. He was never able to withstand the early storm and make his impact felt.
As mentioned in the breakdown above, I don’t think Tito has jumped through all of the proverbial hoops to earn this title shot. No disrespect to Ken, but Tito beating him meant virtually nothing as it pertains to a title.
Many of us feel he didn’t beat Griffin and even the bouts with Belfort and Cote raised some questions. The wrestling here is near even (Chuck might have the edge) but on the feet Tito cannot hang with Chuck. I’ve seen nothing to lead me to believe his striking is at another level this time and the stand-up game will dictate this fight. I hope it goes more than a round but I don’t see Tito reclaiming that belt any time soon. Liddell by KO.
Well they had to fight again. Or at least Zuffa needed another main event and felt it was time for them to meet again. Liddell has been mowing down opponents since the first time he met Tito and he hasn’t gone the distance in four years. In the same time span, Ortiz has won a series of questionable decisions and stopped an aging Ken Shamrock (Pictures) in consecutive meetings. It is a fight people want to see so I understand booking it, but title shots shouldn’t go the way of NFL Pro Bowl selections and turn into popularity contests.
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Liddell carries a 19-3-0 record in MMA and trains with John Hackleman and the Pit Fight Team. “The Iceman” moved in and out of the UFC, racking up wins against the likes of Jose Landi-Jons (Pictures), Kevin Randleman (Pictures), Murilo Bustamante (Pictures) and Amar Suloev (Pictures) before meeting Vitor Belfort (Pictures).
He out-pointed the Brazilian in a contender’s bout, opening the
door to fight then champion Tito
Ortiz (Pictures). The Ortiz issue remained
unresolved and Liddell would face Randy “The Natural” Couture for
the interim belt in June 2003. Incredibly Randy out-struck the
kickboxer and pounded Liddell for three rounds before the
stoppage.
Liddell finally met Ortiz in April 2004 and put all the questions to rest, knocking out Tito in the second round; it set up a rematch with Couture for the title. Not content to sit and wait for his shot.
In the rematch for the UFC light heavyweight title at UFC 52, Liddell knocked out Couture in just two minutes. Last August Liddell settled another old score, laying a beating on Jeremy Horn (Pictures). It took nearly five rounds to put him away, but Horn had problems seeing Chuck’s punches and the fight was stopped. Continuing on his rematch tour in ‘06, Liddell stopped Couture with strikes and finished off “Babalu” Sobral with strikes in the opening stanza.
Tito Ortiz (Pictures), 15-4-0, is the former UFC light heavyweight champion.
Ortiz wrestled at Golden West College and Cal Bakersfield before coming to the UFC as a sparring partner for David “Tank” Abbott. Tito then entered the UFC 13 tournament as an alternate with amateur status and beat Wes Albritton. He got in the final bout due to an injury to Enson Inoue and fought Guy Mezger (Pictures). It looked like victory for Ortiz but a cut stoppage allowed Mezger a second opportunity at victory and Tito was guillotine choked for the win.
After stopping Jerry Bohlander, Ortiz faced champion Frank Shamrock (Pictures) in a classic UFC contest. Ortiz would lose, but it propelled him onto the next stage of his career by improving his overall training philosophy. He won the UFC 199-lb. title in Japan in a lengthy and unimpressive bout with Wanderlei Silva (Pictures) at UFC 25.
Ortiz would defeat overmatched opponents, including Yuki Kondo (Pictures) and Elvis Sinosic (Pictures), before out-pointing a game Vladimir Matyushenko (Pictures).
Ken Shamrock (Pictures) finally met Ortiz at UFC 40 and was able to drop Tito, but the bout was eventually stopped as Shamrock was taking heavy abuse. Ortiz lost his title to Randy Couture (Pictures), and has since fought in Couture and Liddell’s shadow.
In 2006 Tito faced Forrest Griffin (Pictures) and despite starting out strong, Ortiz met his match in rounds two and three but the judges gave the win to Tito. Ortiz and “The World’s Most Dangerous Man” met twice more. Ken was healed from his injuries and thought he could finally press Ortiz. Shamrock was wrong. In back-to-back first-round embarrassments, Shamrock was dropped and pounded by Tito. He was never able to withstand the early storm and make his impact felt.
As mentioned in the breakdown above, I don’t think Tito has jumped through all of the proverbial hoops to earn this title shot. No disrespect to Ken, but Tito beating him meant virtually nothing as it pertains to a title.
Many of us feel he didn’t beat Griffin and even the bouts with Belfort and Cote raised some questions. The wrestling here is near even (Chuck might have the edge) but on the feet Tito cannot hang with Chuck. I’ve seen nothing to lead me to believe his striking is at another level this time and the stand-up game will dictate this fight. I hope it goes more than a round but I don’t see Tito reclaiming that belt any time soon. Liddell by KO.
