#4 Rashad Evans vs. Chuck Liddell – UFC 88 – 09/06/08
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You could make a fair argument that the beginning of the end for the legendary Chuck Liddell came when he lost his Light-Heavyweight title to Quinton Jackson at UFC 71 in May 2007.
Personally, though I’d disagree with that – the Jackson loss was bad but it looked more like a flash knockout, and after that, the Iceman put on two great fights – one in a losing effort to Keith Jardine, and another in a win over longtime rival and fellow legend Wanderlei Silva.
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The Silva fight made it look like Liddell was back to his absolute best. He could still take a sledgehammer punch and was more than capable of handing them out. 2008 wasn’t quite as good for him, though. A hamstring injury sidelined him for much of the year before he was pitted against rising star Rashad Evans at UFC 88.
On paper, it looked like a favourable match for Liddell. He’d always dealt well with wrestling-based foes like Tito Ortiz and Randy Couture, and Evans wasn’t the most accomplished striker. Although he’d knocked out Sean Salmon with a head kick, he’d gone on to struggle on the feet with the much smaller Michael Bisping.
This looked tailor made for a classic Iceman knockout.
We got a classic KO, for sure, except not in the way anyone could’ve imagined. After a tentative first round, one thing seemed certain – Evans was very fast and was much harder to hit than anyone had expected him to be.
When the second round began, Evans stayed on the outside, almost daring Liddell to come after him, and when the former champ did so, Rashad began to fire back with rapid punches, testing Liddell’s reflexes to the limit.
Eventually, things came to a head. Liddell threw a heavy right uppercut/hook – usually a killer punch for him – but this time Evans was ready and he uncorked a crushing overhand right that Liddell himself would’ve been proud of.
Like in an old Western movie, the younger fighter was the quicker, and Rashad’s punch connected with phenomenal force. Liddell went down, knocked completely unconscious in one of the scariest knockouts in UFC history.
It would be some time before he came around.
After this fight, the old adage somehow became that a stiff breeze could knock Liddell out. He attempted comebacks twice, but ended up unconscious both times, once at the hands of Shogun Rua and finally against Rich Franklin.
A chin which had once stood up to punches from heavy hitters like Alistair Overeem, Wanderlei Silva and Vitor Belfort was well and truly cracked. The Franklin knockout convinced UFC president Dana White that he’d seen enough, and he was able to encourage Liddell to retire.
While you could argue it was a simple case of Father Time catching up with the Iceman, I think you can trace the end back to the fight with Rashad Evans – a career-altering knockout.
