First, the face of UFC’s marketing juggernaut, Chuck Liddell, gets handed a loss for the second time by Rampage Jackson. I hear whispers of retirement from the minute the blogs can write up the show. A summer passes, and many mock the legitimacy of a Liddell-Jardine main event. After all, they’re both “losersâ€, and maybe Chuck should retire. And besides all that Jardine mess, what people really wanna see is the past it’s drawing prime Liddell-Silva match. Finally. I agree, that’s the match to see even four years later, but Jardine knocks out the Iceman.
Along the same lines I see we saw Rich Franklin get crushed by Anderson Silva. After a year on the comeback road the talented Cincinnati fighter runs into Anderson Silva again. You guessed it (or saw it), Rampage-like kryptonite. Again, I hear people calling for retirement. Some claim Franklin even has talked about retirement, extrapolating from vague comments at the post UFC 77 press conference.
Like Liddell before him, the 30-something Franklin has decided he’s not gonna open a gym and just teach… just yet. I applaud their individual decisions. Yes, neither can beat the champion in their weight division. But to just give up, or say that they might not have value because they can’t be the champ at that moment is bad for the sport as a fan, bad for business as a company, and indicative of sports fans in UFC’s homeland, America.
I guess congratulations are in order. Every time I hear, “that Liddell is a bum! Saw him get knocked out by some guy with one punchâ€, I’ll know that MMA is now part of American sport’s expectations. And about that Liddell-Silva dream fight. If Silva loses, and a lot of experts think he will, he’ll have three straight loses. Should the legendary Ax Murderer from Chute Boxe retire? I don’t. After all, he’s the Rampage Kryptonite. It’s a big game of rock-paper-scissors. So much for early retirement.
E-mail John Philapavage at johnnyp@mmaopinion.com
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