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[Ramma]

I don't necessarily think Chuck needs to retire. It isn't as if the guys he has been losing to are cans or subpar fighters. Did he have a bad stretch? Yes. Will he ever get to the title? No.

Let's face facts, Chuck has a legion of better fighters in front of him, a ton of guys who could beat him, and a few guys who will give him trouble.

Machida, Shogun (rematch), Rogerio, Jardine (rematch), Griffin, Anderson (if he decided to move up), and of course, Rampage are all guys Chuck isn't going to get past. He may catch Griffin or Jardine, but that's it.

Chuck can finish out his career on wins, but it is going to be by beating guys he already beat and non-contenders.

Maybe he can prove me wrong. I'm still waiting for Cro Cop to show me he can.

I mean hey, I'm the only person in the world who believed Vitor would ever have a come back, but there he is, fighting Anderson for the title.

[rivethead]

Chuck looked focused and in shape against Shogun, to me he looked the best he'd looked in several years--maybe going back to the second Babalu fight--but the problem is that Chuck at his peak would lose to a focused and healthy Shogun, at least in my opinion.

So I'm not entirely writing him off, and I want him to be successful with what he wants to do...the only real risk is that if Tito somehow wins, we're going to have to listen to him talk about it as though he beat a 2005 Chuck Liddell, instead of a 2010 Chuck Liddell.

rh

[Dr. MMA]

Originally Posted by rivethead

Chuck looked focused and in shape against Shogun, to me he looked the best he'd looked in several years--maybe going back to the second Babalu fight--but the problem is that Chuck at his peak would lose to a focused and healthy Shogun, at least in my opinion.

I agree that he looked good physically and focused against Shogun, although I do think that he looked better for the Wand fight but that's a personal opinion.

Shogun was just really on point that day and he didn't let Chuck get into any rhythm. People say they were really impressed with Shogun's technique against Machida but I was even more impressed with his technique against Chuck. His hands, his kicks, counterattacks, takedowns, knees and movement were all great.

As Ramma mentioned, Chuck wasn't fighting any chumps but top of the line guys and stylistically Tito is a great matchup for him to get back in the groove. If he can't beat Tito, then I don't know what to say really.

[macewen]

I was never a huge chuck fan either, but he has given us some memorable moments, and I never wish a legend to go out that way...I hope he can come back (I was kinda hopin Tito would win atleast 1 out of the 3 tho :P) and get some wins together, imagine if chucks loopy style were to catch lyoto...

[willpunisher]

blah.
too bad its tito. if it was anyone i would love to see chuck losing again.
but both are on the decline so blaaaaaaah

[Bizz]

Chuck is Chuck. When he fights people tune in and it always creates a buzz. I don't see why the fans or his boss want to retire him when there are still plenty of good matchups for him. I mean that's his own dicision to make and if he does end up losing more fights he'll do what's right.

Is he done? Was it a bad streak? Let those next 4 fights give you the answer. I've never been a huge Chuck fan, but I just don't understand why he should be counted out so fast.

[fishy]

I just felt I was getting hurt by stuff that normally wouldn't hurt me.

This is pretty much why Chuck is not performing like he used to. He took some hard shots from Rashad, Page and Shogun that either put him out or rocked him but Chuck in his prime would walk through them. His aggressive style was successful because of his ability to take those shots and land an over right himself to finish. In the first Page fight, he took a lot of clean, hard shots and although he took a beating and he lost he wasn't rocked at all--he took that punishment like a champ.

The key to his success will probably be him mixing up his wrestling with his striking like he said and working on a tight striking defense to avoid eating those big shots which he can't take anymore

[wolunt]

I just can't see Chuck putting together 3 good fights. I know he says to look at Randy late in his career but Randy has always taken great care of himself. Chuck has been living it up for the last 10 years instead. I just don't see anything changing from Chuck to be honest, I do think it's great that he's working out with Bravo but it's too little too late IMO.

[JadedX]

Will he ever get to the title? No.

He's already been there.. I agree, though, he won't ever get BACK to the title. The LHW division is stacked compared to when he was literally taking guys heads off. Rampage had put a halt on that, though

Anyway, whilst I too am not a big fan of Chuck.. I'm not convinced he's done.

[Fedorlei Gomipierre]

I understand Dana's whole, "He's accomplished everything and he's nothing left to prove..."line, but from a purely mercenary BUSINESS perspective, having Chuck Liddell fight on your card will absolutely bump up the ratings/buys and could provide some much needed star power on some lighter cards and would be a great way to introduce/educate fans who buy the PPV or tune in to see Chuck fight, to a wide new array of talented, lesser known fighters like Rumble, Palhares, Bones, Belcher etc, who could really use the rub of having a big name on the same card as them.

Consider matchups against:
Franklin, Jardine, Crocop(catch) and Kimbo are all perfectly within his wheelhouse and would be big drawing bouts and they could always feed him to a younger talent like Forrest or Jones who could use that bigname win right now.

While I don't think he's ever going to get back to the top of the mountain, Chuck still has a massive amount of uses that ZUFFA could exploit if they so see fit.

Personally, he'd be a wonderful fight to potentially introduce Gegard Mousasi into the UFC on a free SPIKE card, even though I think he'd probably cut to the front of the line as soon as he signed. Bouts with Kimbo and Crocop especially have massive numbersign potential too.