Looking Back: Liddell vs Couture Part 1
Published by on January 20th, 2008 in History

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Chuck Liddell, one of the living legends of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, took a rather circuitous route to his first championship opportunity, and there is no doubt that he earned it.The accounting major from Cal Poly had beaten some of the best in the business, including Jeff Monson, Kevin Randleman, Murilo Bustamante, Guy Mezger and Vitor Belfort, then capped off one of the most tremendous runs ever by a UFC contender by head-kicking Renato Sobral into oblivion at UFC 40: Vendetta to put himself in a position to fight for a title – ANY title.
 
The problem was, he hadn’t been able to get a fight with the champion. Tito Ortiz, the “Huntington Beach Bad Boy,” was the champion in the light heavyweight division, having won it at UFC 25 in April of 2000, and had held the crown for almost three years. On the same card Liddell beat Sobral, Ortiz engaged in his first of three matches against Ken Shamrock and forced the MMA legend to retire in the corner after three rounds.

At this point the stage was apparently set for Liddell, who was the closest thing to a mandatory contender the UFC could have, to face off against Ortiz for the 205-lb. crown. But Tito made Liddell wait. And wait. And wait.

Liddell had to endure Ortiz’s endless stories about having ‘scheduling conflicts,” and Ortiz simply did not fight, for the UFC or anyone else. Tito would remain out of action for a full ten months following his win over Shamrock, but that did not sit well with the UFC, which wanted him to defend his title.

At the point of exasperation, the UFC, citing the inactivity of Ortiz, which was clearly not prompted by injury, but rather a contractual dispute, declared that the designation of undisputed light heavyweight champion had been more or less removed from Ortiz, and ordered an “interim” title fight for UFC 43 to take place between Liddell and Randy Couture. Couture, a former All-American and Olympic wrestler from Oklahoma State had already scaled the heights, having once held the UFC’s heavyweight title. He had been beaten by Ricco Rodriguez in an attempt to regain it in his previous fight.

Liddell started out the fight with side-to-side movement, while Couture stalked. Couture worked his way in with straight punches, demonstrated surprising boxing ability, then quickly lifted Liddell’s leg and took him down. Liddell, however, stood Couture up, and got him back to the center of the Octagon, where the fight took up its earlier pattern. Liddell was obviously more comfortable in the stand-up position, and it showed, as he scored with a few chopping rights to Couture’s head. But Couture, not a boxing specialist, rushed Liddell and brought him down, then had him pinned against the fence, standing up, for the balance of the first round.

Couture began effectively striking in round two, nailing Liddell with straight rights, left hooks, even left jabs. The big revelation was that Couture, who was the better grappler, was also starting to extract an advantage with his hands. This set him up for what he did best. Indeed, an emphatic leg sweep toward the end of round two brought Liddell down, and though Liddell scored a dramatic reversal moments later, time ran out on him in the round.

Amazingly, Couture continued to score heavily with strikes as the third round commenced. A big left uppercut sent Liddell reeling, and as the round progressed Liddell was being hurt with one straight punch after another, as he seemed a little befuddled. Couture punctuated this attack with a takedown, at which point he went to the ground-and-pound. Liddell was virtually helpless on the canvas, and the fight was stopped by referee John McCarthy at 2:39 of round three.

Couture became the first fighter to win titles in both the heavyweight and light heavyweight divisions. As for Liddell, it was off to Japan for a couple of bouts under the PRIDE banner.

But he’d soon be back – and with a vengeance.