Chuck Liddell Noncommittal About His Future In MMA
Chuck Liddell noncommittal about what his future holds in the world of MMA after suffering a defeat in his latest outing which came under the Golden Boy banner.
It’s rare in MMA that legendary fighters stick to their first retirements. There are several examples of that. Tito Ortiz retired after losing to Forrest Griffin a second time. But only to return to the sport two years later to join Bellator MMA. Georges St-Pierre couldn’t resist the pull of the cage and returned in November of 2017 to beat Michael Bisping.
It’s been well established by UFC President Dana White that he didn’t want to see Liddell fight anymore. The reason for that is seeing him be knocked out several times in the later part of his pro-MMA career. However, that didn’t mean that Liddell had no desire to fight again. Thus, when a big money offer came his way, he took it.
Chuck Liddell Won’t Comment On Retirement
As seen on Saturday night inside The Forum in Inglewood, California on pay-per-view, Ortiz was able to score a first round knockout victory. When talking with the media after the fight, the UFC light heavyweight champion isn’t ready to call it a career just yet.
“I don’t want to think about that right now,” Liddell told reporters at the post-fight press conference (H/T to MMAFighting). “I mean, I’m not in the right state of mind to really talk about whether or not I’m done or not. But I felt good out there and I had fun, so we’ll see.”
Liddell did promise that this loss made him want to stay in the gym for the foreseeable future. Whether that means to continue to fight or if it’s only in a supportive role.
“The one takeaway I have from this is that I will definitely be in a training camp again,” Liddell said. “I don’t know if it’ll be for me or for someone else, but I miss being in the gym and getting ready for a fight, or getting someone else ready for a fight. So I will now be more involved in training guys — at least training guys if not fighting, but for sure training guys.”
