Liddell vs. Silva at UFC 79: History in the making <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>"I want to fight Chuck in November and make a huge show, and make it the biggest show ever...I have no doubts it's the most important fight of my life," Wanderlei Silva once said about the ever elusive possibility about taking on Chuck Liddell. “I want Wanderlei Silva. I want to knock him out. He’s next,” Chuck Liddell once said about the former PRIDE champion. The great thing? We’re about to find out which of these two really wants to take on the other as that elusive bout will finally happen at UFC 79: Nemesis on December 28th. This is history in the making. Here’s why. Back on April 14, 2000, Wanderlei Silva was soundly defeated via unanimous decision by Tito Ortiz at UFC 25: Ultimate Japan 3. From there the Brazilian fighter went on to compete in 18 straight fights without a loss, all but one of which took place in Japan’s PRIDE organization. In other words, the last time Wanderlei Silva fought in the UFC he was soundly defeated. But that was a long time ago. Up through the end of 2005, despite having lost to Mark Hunt via controversial decision (a heavyweight) and Ricardo Arona via decision (a loss he avenged), Silva was one of the big ticket items, if not the big ticket item for PRIDE. Across the ocean from Japan, nearly nine months before Wanderlei Silva’s streak of consecutive fights without a loss ended to Mark Hunt, Chuck Liddell started a now famous winning streak. The man he defeated to start the string off on April 2, 2004? How about the fighter that Wanderlei Silva had tasted defeat at the hands of in his last UFC bout? That’s right: Chuck Liddell knocked Tito Ortiz out on the night in question. Including that now historic victory, Liddell won seven straight, taking the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship back from Randy “The Natural” Couture via KO two fights after beating Ortiz. By August of 2005 Wanderlei Silva vs. Chuck Liddell was the fight everyone wanted to see. There were legions of MMA fans that felt Japan’s PRIDE organization had better fighters than the UFC did. There were even a handful— albeit less— that felt the UFC’s fighters were underrated and more skilled than PRIDE’s. And in the middle of it all was Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva, to an extent the faces of the two organizations in question. The similarities were kind of astounding. They both competed in the 205 pound weight class. The two of them loved to knock people out and hardly every tried to take anyone down. Both were in the middle of hot streaks; both had killer nicknames (the Iceman for Chuck Liddell, The Axe Murderer for Wanderlei Silva). But the fight was simply not to be. PRIDE didn’t want their fighters competing in UFC events; and for the most part, UFC officials didn’t want theirs competing on PRIDE venues. The one chance this fight had to happen failed when the UFC allowed Liddell to compete in PRIDE’s middleweight tourney back in 2003. Unfortunately, Liddell lost to PRIDE’s Quinton “Rampage” Jackson via TKO, terminating the possibility that he might continue onto the championship and face Silva. Not to be. Much later, the inevitable happened. PRIDE folded. Unfortunately, it happened a little too late for some. Along with this, these two Hall of Fame caliber fighters are currently on downward turns. Wanderlei “The Axe Murderer” Silva has lost his last two fights via knockout in rather devastating fashion to Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic and Dan “Hollywood” Henderson. A once proud man with a jaw of granite was found to be like everyone else—human. He hasn’t fought since losing to Henderson on February 24th of this year. Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell hasn’t fared much better. He was TKO’d by Quinton “Rampage” Jackson for the second time on May 26, 2007, this time in a UFC encounter where he lost his belt. Then he was upset via unanimous decision by Keith “The Dean of Mean” Jardine in his last fight. The aura of invincibility surrounding both of these fighters—their opponents were usually beaten before the fights even started—is now gone. Still, does that make this fight any less interesting? After all, whoever loses this bout may never recover. Back in late 2005, a Liddell- Silva battle would’ve let everyone know who the best 205 pounder in the world was. Now it’s about survival. Both guys need this fight like never before. Not to answer a question, but rather to salvage a career. Then there are the questions. Are the UFC’s fighters really better than former PRIDE competitors based on their recent wins in the Octagon? Is the UFC’s success in the majority of initial bouts between the two organizations really only about the transition from the ring to the Octagon and all the rules changes? Does the way that the UFC’s Gabriel Gonzaga dominated Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic on the ground before knocking him out, and the way that former PRIDE fighter Anderson Silva has dominated the UFC’s middleweight division from a striking perspective indicate that PRIDE once had the better strikers and the UFC the better grapplers? Quinton “Rampage” Jackson’s ability to beat Chuck Liddell twice on his feet, and inability to do the same to Wanderlei Silva, would seem to reinforce this notion. But then again, Cro Cop did lose to Cheick Kongo on his feet and was knocked out by Gonzaga. In the end, the upcoming match up between Wanderlei “The Axe Murderer” Silva (31-7-1, 21 (T)KO’s) and Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell (20-5, 13 (T)KO’s) will not answer any of these questions entirely, even if it will give us another glimpse. But the interesting thing is this. Diehard fans know what this fight used to mean to the game, and remnants of this meaning are still there. And because of that, most fans won’t be watching this one passively. In other words, that opinion on this bout that you may have formed quite a while ago, the one that you were married to, is likely to come out once fight time commences. People will be rooting hard for one or the other of these fighters. The fact that both are on downward turns and need a win very badly only adds to the allure. No the fight’s not quite as big as it would’ve been in August of 2005. But the upcoming match up between Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva is still huge.</div>
