There’s a perceived arrogance in spectators telling participants what they should or should not be doing -- an easy dynamic to resent. Not being a 39-year-old former champion on the receiving end of four TKOs, I’m not in a position to empathize with Chuck Liddell. I don’t know what he’s thinking. But it doesn’t sound good.
When Liddell looked good in the early minutes of the Rich Franklin fight, I suspected it might be the worst possible outcome: despite not having a chin that can sustain any offense, Liddell has been encouraged by the idea he looked sharper and straighter than he had in years. He did, sure: but without an ability to suffer an attack, it’s irrelevant. (More to the point: He was knocked unconscious by a one-armed middleweight. This is not the kind of description that should put anyone on a path to glory as they near 40.)
Liddell has a crucial decision to make, and it’s about more than burning bridges with the UFC should he decide to ignore White’s imposed retirement plan: He is no longer in a position to offer up his increasingly fragile skull to the punishment of training or competing. (A “normal” neurological exam is a joke: the autopsied brains of football players and fighters reveals damage resembling Alzheimer’s.) He has kids and a future secured by a fortune timed to the UFC’s explosion in the latter half of the last decade. He’s incredibly fortunate in that he’s in a position to walk away. Time to start moving.