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25/03/09 - Chuck: "I'm not letting Rashad stay champ for long"
Former UFC light-heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell says he is not planning to let Rashad Evans keep the belt he won recently from Forrest Griffin.
In an exclusive interview for the US edition of Fighters Only (on news stands March 24th), Liddell reveals that he considers himself to still be a contender in the UFC light-heavyweight division - and he doesn’t believe that current champion Rashad had the better of them in their meeting.
“I don’t plan on letting him stay champ for long. I thought I was winning that fight. I made a mistake, got caught and dropped. I was winning the fight up until then,“ he says.
“People ask me about retiring after that fight. It wasn’t like I got my ass kicked and then got knocked out. I was winning the fight, got sloppy for a second and got caught. I made a mistake.”
Liddell won the belt in 2005 and successfully defended it four times before a knockout loss to Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson at UFC 71.
He followed that with a split-decision loss to Keith Jardine, a decision win over Wanderlei Silva and the KO loss to Rashad Evans at UFC 88.
In the meantime, Jackson lost the belt to Forrest Griffin, who promptly lost it to Rashad Evans in his first defence.
Liddell has been criticised in the past for failing to evolve his training methods, but recent reports indicate he has switched thing up for the training camp ahead of his fight with Mauricio ’Shogun’ Rua at UFC 97 next month.
Fighters Only US is available from Barnes and Noble, Borders, 7-Eleven, Walden Books and Books-A-Million, plus other good magazine stockists.
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John Joe O’Regan
John.fightersonly@gmail.com
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