Couture has ‘only concern’ with Liddell vs. Ortiz 3 and it’s not what yo…

Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell fought three times. Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz fought twice. Randy Couture andTito Ortiz fought once. The three, all UFC Hall of Famers, were central to the success of the UFC, at a time when the sport could have died. 

Now Liddell and Ortiz are having a trilogy fight, promoted by Oscar de la Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions on November 24 at The Forum in Inglewood, California. Couture, who is friendly with both of them, appeared recently on Luke Thomas’s The MMA Hour, and expressed a single reservation. It’s not that Liddell is 48, and Ortiz 43.

I’m not too concerned about the age, honestly, said Couture, as transcribed by Marc Raimondi for MMA Fighting. I fought right up until where Chuck’s at right now, at a high level. My only concern with that is that Chuck hasn’t been competing, hasn’t been sparring, hasn’t done anything in the fight realm other than regular strength and conditioning for the last eight years, since he retired.

So that puts the pressure on him to get back up into fight shape, back up and get the timing back to where we’re used to seeing Chuck have going into a fight. He had that style where that timing was very, very important. It wasn’t that he was the biggest, strongest or best athlete. He had a very unique timing, to find you right on the end of one of those long levers and make it a short night. Now, whether he still has that timing, that’s the question.

[Tito] has been in some big fights with Bellator. He’s been very active — he’s still in fight shape and in fight mode. So it’s gonna be interesting.

The onus is always on the guy who won the first. Obviously, the first two fights Chuck won. What’s he gonna change? What’s he gonna do? The real hard question is what kind of shape or what kind of timing is Chuck gonna bring into this fight after being off for the last eight years? So I think the challenges are really there for Chuck Liddell. Is he capable of getting in there and getting it done? Yeah, absolutely. I think anybody who knows the sport is crazy if they count him out. But I think he’s up against it a little more than Tito is.

Tito has been way more active, had some big fights. Will he be able to go out and implement his game plan? Which has gotta be getting in Chuck’s face, finding a way to get Chuck on the ground and take some gas out of Chuck. Certainly not standing and trying to trade with Chuck and find out if he does have that timing. I think it’s gonna be interesting.

I think they’re still huge names, both of them. Marquee names. Names that anybody who’s a fan of this sport recognizes. And maybe this is the start of the masters division of MMA.

I’m hoping it’s successful for both these guys and the promotion, because it doesn’t hurt to have more options, more places for fighters to go and be a professional fighter.

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