CSAC head responds to criticism of Liddell vs. Ortiz 3

When Golden Boy determined to put together a trilogy fight between Tito Ortiz, 43, and Chuck Liddell, 48, the California State Athletic Commission followed Association of Ringside Physicians testing guidelines for fighters over 40 years old, which include blood work, cardiac testing, EKG, eye exam, both MRA and MRI testing of the brain, and neurocognitive testing. Both fighters passed.

Images emerged of Liddell appearing to be in terrific shape. When the fighters got licensed, oddsmakers had it about even, with some giving Liddell the nod, as he was 2-0 vs. Ortiz.

Then post-licensing, videos emerged of Liddell, and he looked like a 48-year-old who had partied a lot. However, Ortiz’s coach Jason Parillo, and others, argued that the clips looked like a hoax to lull Ortiz, or at least leave him unaware of Liddell’s strengths. The fight itself though was not competitive, with the wrestling-based Ortiz punching Liddell down and out. With that came questions about why Liddell was licensed in the first place.

In an interview with Marc Raimondi for MMA Fighting, CSAC executive officer Andy Foster explained the issues in play.

This would have been a whole lot easier for me if I just said no,” he explained. “If I just say, ‘No, we’re not doing that.’ The regulations and the medical exams are not set up for the comfort of Andy Foster and whether it’s easy for me. This is a business and profession, the fight game. Chuck Liddell made money in this profession for many years. He wanted to enter this business and profession again, a business and profession he had been at the top of the world at, albeit a long time ago. If you pass all the medicals, the only thing left is, is the fight a mismatch? And I didn’t believe it was.

I thought it would be competitive. At least I certainly didn’t think it was a mismatch. Your level of inactivity notwithstanding, it’s hard to say it’s a mismatch when you’ve got two wins over the guy already.

We want to keep the fighters safe. At the end of the day, it’s a fight. If we hadn’t approved the fight, that fight was probably gonna happen somewhere. California is the safest place for that fight to be at. We had our top referee in there [Herb Dean], he stopped the fight in a timely fashion. If you tell somebody as the executive officer, ‘Yeah, I don’t think you should be doing this even though you passed all your medicals,’ you’re basically telling that fighter, you can’t make a half a million dollars or however much he was making. That’s a big responsibility to tell somebody they can’t make a living. I take that responsibility seriously.

Foster also referenced the clips of Chuck Liddell hitting mitts without his characteristic speed and power.

It’s hard to gauge any of that stuff, said Foster. “You don’t know how hard someone is going. People do different things. … It just demonstrated that he had been in the gym and he was training.”

Foster did have a suggestion for the sport generally.

I think with the fight game, we should perhaps change the focus to promoting these younger, up-and-coming fighters, he said. I think that’s good for the sport.