DFW: Liddell ‘gave it his last shot’

UFC president Dana White did not get a chance to confer with former light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell, as he said he would, after Saturday’s UFC 115 event. Instead, Liddell went straight to the hospital after Rich Franklin knocked him out cold.

White said Thursday that if Liddell went unconscious again, the two would come to the same conclusion: it’s time to hang it up.

“Yeah, and I hope he agreed tonight,” the UFC president said at the post-event press conference when asked if Liddell’s career is over. “I don’t think he won’t.”

“This is what he wanted. I did what I felt I should do. He said, ‘Listen, I want this; I’m going to take it serious,’ and he did. What else could I say? The guy was healthy. He’s seen the doctors, he’s passed his (medicals).”

“I don’t think there was any secret in anyone’s mind – including Rich Franklin and his camp – what Chuck’s gameplan was going to be tonight. Chuck fights the same way. He has a style that made him very popular (and) very famous and made him a world champion.”

“At 40 years old, you don’t go in with a different gameplan and do different things.”

“I’ll be the first one to say (that) he does not have the chin he used to have. I’ve been around fighters my whole life; you could have hit Chuck in a face with that pole over there, and you wouldn’t knock him out. If you look at some of his earlier fights and some of the shots that he used to get hit with, (they) would have knocked any other fighter out.”

“He had an incredible chin, and listen – we all turn 40. We all get old. Michael Jordan was the greatest basketball (player). It happens to everybody.”

“He actually lived inside that window. “I have not one sad feeling in my body at all. We did it, and he’ll always be a part of it.

“He gave it his last shot, and he went out like Chuck Liddell would: came out blasting, bombing, tried to put Rich away, and he gave the fans a good last fight with the ‘Iceman.'”

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