It's Time for Two Greats to Hang 'em Up

In honor of UFC 100 this Saturday in Las Vegas, I decided to give you guys some good old fashioned mixed martial arts. And, before you get cranky and dismiss this post out of hand because of the headline, I want you all to understand how difficult this one is to write. Matt Hughes and Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell are two of my favorite athletes, not just MMA fighters. They have both been pivotal figures in bringing mixed martial arts, the Ultimate Fighting Championship in particular, into mainstream culture and have helped grow the sport to the point that it can now reasonably claim a popularity on the level of anything short of football here in North America. But the time has come for both of these UFC icons to say goodbye. For the sake of their legacies and their own personal health.

Compared to the average human, Matt Hughes and Chuck Liddell(at ages 35 and 39 respectively) are still far superior in terms of physical conditioning, toughness, and fighting ability. However, when you compare both fighters to many of their peers they have now begun to fall short on ability. The fitness is still there and they may both be tougher now than they've ever been, but Hughes and Liddell have both shown tangible signs that age is catching up with them while the next generation of MMA fighters has closed the gap talent-wise and turned mixed martial arts into one discipline. No longer do the best fighters specialize in one particular aspect(striking, wrestling, and jiu jitsu) but, rather, the sport has become an amalgam of all three. Basically, the skill set of MMA's rising stars is now greater and more well-rounded than that of most of the sport's aging greats and, as such, it is becoming more and more dangerous for these older stars to continue their careers.

Matt Hughes doesn't owe anyone a single thing. Not Dana White. Not the UFC. Not even his fans. He has, in his illustrious fifty fight career(43 wins, 7 losses), taken on all comers and and dispatched them with equal aplomb via submission and knockout. A quick look back at his resume shows victories over the greatest fighters that mixed martial arts has had to offer in the welterweight division. Gracie. Sakurai. St-Pierre. Penn. Newton. Serra. And the list goes on. But we've seen a decline. Ever so slight, but a decline nonetheless. Hughes seems to lack the supreme confidence he once beamed with. To watch him as he approaches the octagon these days is like watching a man trying to convince himself that he is still Matt Hughes and he is still the greatest ever at 170 pounds. Sadly to no avail. With three losses and two lackluster performances in his last five fights, Hughes has shown that all those punches, all those kicks, and all those rounds have taken their toll. His instincts and fierce competitive nature carried him through the first round of his last fight with long-time rival Matt Serra and allowed him to return to his wrestling roots just enough in the second and third rounds to pull out the victory. It wasn't impressive like Hughes had wanted and it was, instead, a glaring example of why Hughes should call it quits and focus on his family, his god, and his MMA school.

Known worldwide as "The Iceman", Chuck Liddell has also had a storied career. His larger than life persona gave the UFC a crossover superstar upon whom they could build their brand and garner the kind of exposure it takes for a sport to go from being considered "underground" to selling approximately 5 million pay per view buys in 2008. At $54.95 a pop, that's a pretty penny for the Fertitta Brothers and Dana White and millions upon millions of eyeballs on the sport of mixed martial arts every month. Liddell, just like Matt Hughes, has taken on anyone who dared step into the cage with him and, in spite of losses in four of his last five, sports a 21-7 career record. A junior college wrestler prior to first stepping into the octagon at UFC 17, he has been a dominant stand-up fighter for years. A counter puncher par excellence whose style has always been a crowd pleaser. Knockout victories over legendary tough guys like Randy Couture, Wanderlei Silva, Tito Ortiz, and Babalu Sobral cemented his status as one of the most feared men in the world. Chuck reveled in his image and even played it up in television(HBO's Entourage) and movie appearances. Critics will say that his partying lifestyle and his rise to megastardom led Liddell to this crossroad in his career. I choose to disagree. I believe that regardless what you do, time stands still for no man. Not even an "Iceman." Given the vicious knockouts he has suffered versus Shogun Rua and Rashad Evans in his last two fights, it looks likely that Chuck Liddell just doesn't have it anymore. The visceral fan in me longs for the excitement of another Liddell victory like the one at UFC 79 versus Silva. But the practical fan in me can't stomach the thought of another nauseating knockout loss for one of my all-time faves when he is clearly past his prime.

Matt Hughes will be remembered for his incredible dominance over so many years and evolution from wrestler to high level submission fighter. Chuck Liddell will always be "The Iceman." A man with rare one-punch knockout acumen in both hands and unmatched marketability who carried his sport to new heights of popularity. Both men were champions and both should always be on the short list of the best fighters all-time in their weight classes. There should be a special place in the UFC Hall of Fame for Mr. Hughes and Mr. Liddell when they are finally done. Sooner or later. We should all just hope that it comes sooner because later may be too late.