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Chuck Liddell v. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson: It’s on…

The essential MMA site Sherdog is reporting that a fight between Chuck Liddell and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson has been signed for May 26 in Las Vegas. The fight will be for Liddell’s UFC light heavyweight title and is significant since “Rampage” was the last guy to beat “The Iceman” and is Liddell’s only un-avenged loss.

I’ve never really been a Liddell fan, but I’ve definitely come to respect him. Since his loss to Jackson he’s defeated Tito Ortiz (twice), current UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture (twice) and a few opponents that really had no business in the octagon with him in Renato “Babalu” Sobral, Jeremy Horn and Vernon White. Liddell’s style is unorthodox, but he’s a hellacious striker. His unconventional style makes him an even tougher matchup since he presents opponents with unusual angles and his punches at times seem to come from left field. He’s also got a solid chin, meaning that guys who try to trade with “The Iceman” usually end their night looking up at the lights. He’s not much of a ground fighter (only one career win by submission) but has excellent takedown defense meaning that opponents usually end up fighting in Liddell’s backyard. His ability to keep fights standing has resulted in no career losses via submission (all three losses–to Jackson, Couture and an early career loss to Jeremy Horn) have been by TKO. In other words, an opponent that seeks to submit Liddell will be attempting to do something that no one else has been able to in his 9 years inside the ring/octagon. His style is not unlike recently vanquished heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia, but Liddell has much more impressive power, a much stronger chin and is IMO a generally tougher guy. He’s also much more aggressive than Sylvia, and his unorthodox style makes him a tougher matchup for most fighters. Sylvia received a lot of grief during his title reign (and rightfully so in my estimation) for his tentative style of fighting “not to lose” rather than going out and trying to win impressively. Liddell is the exact opposite, which is why he’s such an exciting fighter and brings in such strong box office and PPV buys.

Of course “Rampage” is no joke either and will probably represent the most significant challenge of Liddell’s title reign. Jackson is at least a physical equal to the rangy “Iceman” and I’m thinking that he’s the more powerful of the two. Jackson’s career resume is likewise very impressive with a career record of 26-6. In the past five and a half years his three losses came to the absolute best in the sport at his weight–Wanderlei Silva (twice) and Maruicio “Shogun” Rua. He’s got wins over a whole slew of top rate opponents including Liddell, Ricardo Arona and a decision victory over highly regarded Matt “The Law” Lindland.

Its never easy beating a top flight opponent twice, but the dynamic here is a bit different since “Rampage” is the challenger here. Liddell’s lack of serious challengers of late also concerns me–he’s not been in with an opponent who can trade punches with him since, well, since he lost to Jackson on a PRIDE show in Japan. It sounds sort of silly based on his status as UFC heavyweight champion, but Randy Couture was “past his prime” in his two losses to Liddell. Furthermore, Couture himself has admitted that he was having a number of personal issues that hurt his focus. Tito Ortiz was also past his prime, and Liddell’s other title defenses were against fighters that were, in all honestly, overmatched.

This has the possibility of being a “fight of the year” type matchup, with two of the better strikers in the lightweight division going toe-to-toe. And while I’m not going to suggest that Liddell doesn’t have a chance, I’m of the opinion that “Rampage” becomes the UFC Lightweight Champion here. Its important to keep in mind that Jackson is just entering his prime (he’s not even 30 yet) while Liddell is in his late 30′s. Age has a tendency of sneaking up on fighters, and that could very well be the difference here. In any case, it’ll be an all out war for as long as it lasts but I’m going to call it Quinton “Rampage” Jackson by TKO.

Since the fight was just announced today no wagering line has been posted as of yet, but I’d imagine that Liddell will be favored based on his status as champion and popularity among the UFC public. This would make Liddell a great value–were this an even fight he’d be the epitome of a “live dog” and I really don’t see this as even based on the age differential and recent level of competition.

The UFC did dodge a bullet with Randy Couture’s win over Tim Sylvia. Sylvia would have been destroyed by Mirko “Cro Cop”. I’m of the opinion that Mirko will be the UFC champion sooner rather than later, but even so they’ve got a matchup with Couture that could potentially set a new PPV record for the organization. Had Sylvia prevailed, and Mirko destroyed him to become heavyweight champion it would have been bad for the organization to have another PRIDE refugee in Jackson potentially winning the lightweight championship. No matter how the UFC would have tried to spin it, the perception would have been that the PRIDE fighters ran roughshod over their champions. The way things worked out the damage to the organization’s prestige has been mitigated significantly. Of course if things shake out like I think they will PRIDE and the UFC will soon be under the same ownership and it may be a moot point.

Story from Sherdog here

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