The Iceman looks to brush aside younger foe on road back to UFC title
Published Friday September 5th, 2008
ATLANTA - Forrest Griffin dethroned light-heavyweight champion Quinton (Rampage) Jackson two months ago. Can Rashad Evans, like Griffin a winner of "The Ultimate Fighter" reality TV show, take down another marquee name in former title-holder Chuck (The Iceman) Liddell?
Most will say probably no. But barring an upset, the main event of UFC 88 on Saturday night should shed some more light on whether the 38-year-old Liddell has one more run at the 205-pound title in him.
There are two ways of looking at the fight. In hyping the bout, the UFC calls the 28-year-old Evans "younger, faster and undefeated." Others may see the former Michigan State wrestler as smaller, less experienced and shorter on firepower.
Evans weighed it at 205 Friday, one pound more than Liddell.
At 6-2, Liddell (21-5) has three inches and a huge reach advantage on Evans (16-0-1). He is a skilled counter-puncher with excellent takedown defence who has traditionally done well against wrestlers.
One question mark is Liddell's health. The fight was originally scheduled for June but was postponed when Liddell tore a hamstring in April.
"Rashad's looked solid ever since he's been in the UFC. Great wrestler and all that kind of stuff. Chuck is Chuck, though," said former middleweight champion Rich Franklin, who returns to light-heavyweight Saturday to face Matt (The Hammer) Hamill.
"But the question I have here is I wonder how Chuck is doing after the hamstring tear because that's a pretty serious injury and I guess that leaves a big question in my head as to how everything's going to turn out with this fight. With that said, it could be anybody's fight here."
While it was a bad hamstring injury, the Liddell camp says their man enjoyed a speedy recovery - "and a complete recovery too."
Evans has a big plus in that he comes from the camp of respected trainer Greg Jackson, who masterminded Keith (The Dean of Mean) Jardine's win over Liddell at UFC 76 last September. Liddell won the first round but lost the next two as Jardine, showing good staying power and strategic kicks, frustrated the former champion,
"I kept seeing an opening but I couldn't get to it," Liddell lamented at the time.
Give Jackson a big assist on that. The game plan was to break Liddell's rhythm.
"When you mess with people's rhythm, especially a guy like Chuck's who's a great counter-puncher, it'll disrupt your game," said Jackson.
Evans is polite and laid back, a pro athlete who still remembers his days as a hospital security guard in Lansing, Mich., where "you got to see life and death. We had to go and put people in the morgue, and get people out. You saw all kinds of things."
At times, he still seems a little star-struck at where his fighting skills have taken him.
Evans, who counts Randy Couture as a friend, remembers being backstage for Couture's third fight against Liddell at UFC 57 in February 2006. His outstanding memory is the grace Couture showed in consoling others in the dressing room.
"Because everyone else was crying," Evans said. "He was just so relaxed. I was like 'Man, I want to be like Randy Couture one day."'
Welcome to the big leagues. Evans is facing Liddell this time and, to some, his pre-fight statement that it will be a learning experience win or lose may be true but is hardly the kind of rousing mantra to have going into a fight with the Iceman.
Ask Liddell trainer John Hackleman whether he likes the matchup with Evans and he pauses. "Yeah, yeah," he says eventually. "It has its ups and downs but I think its ups way outweighs its downs for Chuck. And the other way for Rashad."
Hackleman sees Evans as slick, slippery, fast and explosive. On the plus side, Liddell is stronger, more experienced, a better striker with one-punch KO power and a longer reach who "knows how to use it."
While Evans knocked out an outmatched Sean Salmon with a head kick, he has most of his success being up-close and personal with his opponents, where he can use his wrestling skills and then pound away.
"The uphill battle for Rashad is he has to get close to him again and again and again and again," said Hackleman. "You can take Chuck down, but he'll get back up. Then he has to come in again. Next thing you know he's getting hit on the chin and then the whole game changes."
"I tend to do well with guys who are trying to tie me up," Liddell observes.
"I like the matchup," he added. "But everybody's dangerous. He's got a different (takedown) shot than most wrestlers I've faced. And he's pretty good at moving his head, keeping from getting hit. But I'm pretty good at finding that head too, so we'll see."
Liddell's style is hardly a secret. But that doesn't make stopping it any easier.
"He does the same things but he does it so incredibly well that it's really hard to get around," Jackson said. "So in one sense you know what he's going to do, but in that same sense, he's so damn good at doing it, it's really hard to get around it."
The rest of the anti-Liddell strategy is fairly simple.
"You don't want to sit at the end of his punches, that's for sure," Jackson explains. "So you either want to be a little bit closer or a little bit farther away. Standing right at the end of Chuck's punches is bad for the health."
In his December win over Wanderlei Silva, Liddell did more than punch. He took the Brazilian down and even tried a spinning back fist.
"I'm having fun and playing a little more when I'm sparring and fighting," he explained.
Jackson believes Liddell felt the need to expand his arsenal after the Jardine loss. "I hope he does other stuff because that keeps him away from doing this stuff. That's good."
Jackson also takes pride in Evans' last two fights: a draw with Tito Ortiz at UFC 73 in July 2007 and a win over Michael Bisping at UFC 79 last November. Ortiz was a chance to prove he belongs with a marque name, albeit one a little tarnished at this stage of his career, while the win over Bisping was a study in perseverance.
Evans did not eat properly the day of the Bisping fight and paid the consequences.
"Everybody thought that was a terrible performance," Jackson said. "For me it was an amazing performance because I saw in his eyes - I know my fighter - he was done, he was gassed. Two minutes into that first round, nothing left. I could see it in his face. And he pushed through and he still won the fight. I was so proud of him. ... Because when you hit that wall, you look for every reason not to fight or you just cruise and he pushed through it. He showed a lot of heart."
Liddell, for his part, admits that he is nearing the end of his career and had slipped up in 2007 losses to Jackson and Jardine. But he says he still has things to do. In addition to winning back his lightweight title, he has expressed interest in a fourth fight with Couture, this time for the heavyweight title.
And he is intrigued by word from Anderson Silva's manager that the middleweight champion is willing to move up and take a crack at the Iceman.
"He's a tough man." Liddell said of Silva, widely seen as the best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet. "It's going to be a great challenge and a fun fight."
A win over Evans will keep opening those doors.
NOTES - Welterweight Karo (The Heat) Parisyan pulled out of the card Friday with a back injury. He was slated to meet Japan's Yoshiyuki Yoshida. ...Canadian middleweight Jason MacDonald and Jason (The Punisher) Lambert both weighed in at 185.
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