Two of the very best ever will step back into the Octagon this weekend when Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell will be taking on Tito Ortiz for the third time in their careers.
The previous two meetings have gone the Iceman’s way but Tito will be looking to extract some revenge. Both of these men are long past their primes and supposedly were done fighting.
For Tito he called it a career on a high note with a submission victory over Chael Sonnen in January of 2017. Chuck on the other hand hasn’t competed in close to a decade, June of 2010 to be exact.
Unlike Tito, Chuck did not manage to end his career the way he wanted. He lost five of his last six fights with his last three losses coming all via stoppage. It was a bad way to go out for the legend. This Saturday night both men will be looking to drink from the fountain of youth.
The ongoing discussion revolving this contest is that it should not be happening in the first place.
The notion that this fight will ruin the sports reputation is nothing but nonsense.
Was the sport ruined when arguably the greatest fighter of all time in Anderson Silva completely stunk up the joint in his fight against Demian Maia?
How about Tyron Woodley vs Stephen Thompson? Sure their first matchup was exciting but their rematch was absolutely dreadful. How about Jon Jones? Many actually consider him the greatest. Repeated drug test failures and other problems with both the law and personal demons have affected his career negatively.
Let’s pick an event even more recent. Derrick Lewis vs Francis Ngannou earlier this year was a surefire can’t miss great fight, on paper that is. What you had in that fight was two big strong Heavyweights with tons of knockout power and an equal amount of disdain for one another. The fight seemed as though it would end in a knockout. Instead we got hands down the worse fight of the entire year.
Every time both Tito and Chuck have faced off the fans have never been disappointed. Sure Tito is 43 and Chuck is 48 but we’ve got a ton of old fighters still competing today. Current Light Heavyweight and Heavyweight champ Daniel Cormier is 39. Anderson Silva is 43 and although he’s lost a step or two he can still compete.
The problem most are having with this fight is how bad Chuck looked before he retired. It was bad. Really bad. 10 years ago Chuck was already a shell of his former self. It seems almost impossible that he can find his old form.
The bookies also seem to believe that Chuck is over the hill. Bovada is currently giving him -315 underdog odds (Ortiz, +245).
How will this fight plays out? Who knows. Maybe the iceman will have one more magic moment up his sleeve or maybe Ortiz will finally get a bit of revenge and put the Iceman’s lights out.
A number of scenarios can play out. But none of them will damage the sport’s reputation.
