Interviews
04/12/08 - Chuck Liddell on Couture, Anderson and retirement
Fighters Only: Can you tell us when you will be fighting next? We’re hearing rumours of Anderson Silva at UFC 95 in February.
Nobody has talked to me at all about Randy or Anderson Silva in any recent talks. I know there was talk of me fighting [Anderson] in February. That is definitely not true, I ‘m not fighting until March or April.
Fighters Only: Can you tell us anything about another rumour, that you will be fighting Randy Couture for a fourth time in June?
The rumour that me and Randy are fighting in June... no one has said a word to me and I don’t wait until June to fight. We’ll see what happens. I’ll have to talk to Dana about that, but I haven’t heard anything about that, I really don’t know where it came from or who was talking about it.
To me at this point it doesn’t make sense.
Fighters Only: You lost by knockout for the first time in your career when you faced Rashad Evans at UFC 88. What was the aftermath of the fight like for you?
You know, I was travelling right away, because I had a bunch of PR stuff planned for right after that fight.
You know, it’s one of those things. To me, it was just one of those things that happened. People were like “Are you going to retire now, is that it? Are you over?” but it wasn’t like I was out there getting beat up for three rounds.
Fighters Only: You’ve been with the organisation since UFC 17. What would make you think about retiring?
“You see these guys getting beat up, these guys are too old. I don’t want to be that guy that is too old in the ring, where everyone feels sorry for him because he just cant fight anymore and he is still going out there.
“I don’t think that fight [with Rashad] was that fight [for me]. I was winning the fight and I got caught. That could have happened fifteen years ago, I could have been winning a fight and got caught.
“It’s not a retirement fight where you come out like “God, I just went against a guy that shouldn’t be beating me up and he just beat my ass the whole round, the whole fight and then I lost”.
“I mean, I got caught. I didn’t want it to happen, I’m working on some stuff to make sure I don’t make those same mistakes again and I’m working on some different things, but that wasn’t the fight that will make me decide to quit.
“If I walk out there and I just take a beating and I just don’t feel like I have it any more, or if I can’t compete with the guys in the gym anymore, then I will decide not to go in the ring again.”
“But at this point I still think I have a lot to give.”
Gary Alexander
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