Liddell's Next Opponent Could Be...

Mauricio "Shogun" Rua. This from Wrestling Observer this morning:

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The new plan for Chuck Liddell seems to be a match with Mauricio "Shogun" Rua. No date is finalized but it would likely be either 5/24 in Las Vegas or 6/14 in London, with the latter date more likely

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Liddell wins this, he could very well be in line for another shot at getting the LHW Title back after the Rampage-Griffin fight this summer.

if shogun comes in with bad cardio like in the griffin fight liddell should win it but then if shogun comes in at the top of his game then i think chuck doesn't stand a chance

i cant see why the ufc would put this fight together (the fact that it would be a great fight does not seem good enough any more). one of their top guys would be damaged severely by this fight. either chuck would lose 3 out of 4 or shogun would start his ufc career off 0-2. just seems unlikely. if they are smart they will streamline rua for a title shot because chuck has a better chance of beating him than rampage (even though almost everyone else would have a better chance of beating page imo). it just seems like a bad matchup for rua, because he wont be able to get chuck down most likely and will have a hard time outstiking chuck, and chuck does well counterpunching against guys with slightly wild stand up.

i still think shogun will probably take it but it should be very entertaining and could go either way, but i doubt it will happen yet...

I would definetally watch this fight, seeing as Chuck Liddell is one of my favorite fighters. I think this would be an exciting fight to watch too. I wasn't too impressed with Rua first fight, but I'm guarnteeing that he would come in ready for this fight. I say Liddell by decision if I had to guess.

I think Rua's nerves played a part in his first fight but I don't think he will beat Chuck Liddell when and if they fight. Chuck's standup is too good for Rua imo. To be honest I would love to see Jackson vs. Shogun after the Pride fight wear Jackson beat Shogun's brother in a bad decision by the judges.

We have already seen Liddell beat one of the best muay thai fighters (in mma of course). Shogun will, imo, be a little bit less of a challenge for chuck than wandy simply because i think Wandy is the better striker. The only thing this fight will show us is who has the stronger chin: Wanderlei or Mauricio?

I think Silva clearly has the stronger chin after his incredible demonstration of that against Chuck. He gets his bell rung several times in that fight but continues to pressure Chuck. I would really like to see Silva vs. Jackson for the LHW title and than when Silva knocks out Jackson for a third time I would like Chuck to step in and take the gold home with him.

Liddell will win then Shogun will drop to 185 or bulk up. Griffen was so much bigger than him, but then again he does cut a ton.

The logical move would be to cut weight because let's face it he won't go anywhere against Cro Cop or Emelienenko when he arrives.

Nice. This is a good, tough rebound fight for Shogun, much as Chuck-v-Wandy was for those two guys. No messin' around.

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Posted by xchickox

[...]if shogun comes in at the top of his game then i think chuck doesn't stand a chance

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Liddell suffered, imho, for not facing a good striker for a long time. He got used to beating up grapplers, his defense atrophied, and he lost to the first two quality strikers he fought. However, I think that actually favors Chuck in a match against Shogun.

Liddell has already shown that he's rebounding from his losses to Jackson and Jardine, and even said he was disappointed that he couldn't finish Silva. He still had little birdies circling his head after his loss to Rampage, and he already knew why he lost. He's a smart fighter and he's (re-) learning how to fight strikers. Shogun will have a hard time landing a good blow, much as Silva did (and much as Jardine did, for that matter).

I haven't seen Shogun take the kind of punishment that Wanderlei Silva has, so I don't know about his chin one way or the other, but the odds are against anyone having the same resilience as Silva.

If I knew ahead of time that Shogun was going to rebound from his loss in his next fight, I might give him a 60-40 edge, but certainly no more than that. I can see this fight ending in a dozen plausible ways, and Chuck's victory shout features in about half of them.

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Posted by Flip

The logical move would be to cut weight because let's face it he won't go anywhere against Cro Cop or Emelienenko when he arrives.

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Cro Cop and Emelianenko are both Heavyweights.

Shogun by destruction.

two of my fav fighters goin at it... should be a good matchup.. I'd love to see this go down

Wow... I cant believe this.

Chuck IMO is a bad match-up for Shogun just like he was for Wanderlei with his long reach and crisper striking.... the UFC knows that Chuck is very capable of beating Shogun and I think they are almost attempting to damage the Pride fighters by doing something like this....

Shogun just lost embarassingly against Forrest Griffin, why not give Shogun a warm up fight or two to build him up and get his confidence back before throwing him against Chuck Liddell?

Doesn't make sense to me other then trying to make Shogun 0-2 in the octagon so Dana and Rogan can say "Shogun was never that good" just like they have said about Cro Cop...

BS in my opinion, I hope Shogun knocks him out and its too bad there is no head stomps allowed..

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Posted by jomatty

i cant see why the ufc would put this fight together (the fact that it would be a great fight does not seem good enough any more). one of their top guys would be damaged severely by this fight. either chuck would lose 3 out of 4 or shogun would start his ufc career off 0-2. just seems unlikely. if they are smart they will streamline rua for a title shot because chuck has a better chance of beating him than rampage (even though almost everyone else would have a better chance of beating page imo). it just seems like a bad matchup for rua, because he wont be able to get chuck down most likely and will have a hard time outstiking chuck, and chuck does well counterpunching against guys with slightly wild stand up.

i still think shogun will probably take it but it should be very entertaining and could go either way, but i doubt it will happen yet...

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why feed rua cans? the ufc is full of talent and theres no reason to "streamline" shogun when hes already established as a great fighter. also, this fight will sell PPV buys, in fact any fight chuck is in will, but its better to put him in there against top talent rather than waste chucks last few years as a top draw on fighting former TUFers. with wandy losing to chuck im sure that shogun, even though they dont still train together, would love to avenge his "big brother".

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Posted by Kastro

Doesn't make sense to me other then trying to make Shogun 0-2 in the octagon so Dana and Rogan can say "Shogun was never that good" just like they have said about Cro Cop...

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i dont think they want shogun(a guy they are paying big money to, to lose they just want to put on events that are big draws. and who ever said CC was never that good????

This would be a pretty good fight but it would screw the loser over.

I too cannot believe what some are saying. I find it humorous how some let their hopes for what happens rule over what is actually likely to happen.

Chucks wins no matter what. Like a previous poster said... Chuck Liddell is bad news for Hua. Shogun likes to put the pressure on. I'm sure he'll be even more inclined to do so after his last fight. Doing that against Chuck Liddell is like walking into a trap in which you won't escape. At least not without having gone unconscious.

Breaking news. Chuck / Shogun is on!


http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templates/dailynews.asp?articleid=5604&zoneid=2

I'd love to see this fight.

Chuck by KO in the 3rd








Cageside

amazing fight , cant wait. iceman should put rua asleep. hopefully forest will beat rampage and we can see a rua/wandy vs rampage rematch afterwards.

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I haven't seen Shogun take the kind of punishment that Wanderlei Silva has, so I don't know about his chin one way or the other, but the odds are against anyone having the same resilience as Silva.

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Shogun's chin was tested many times in his fight with lil Nog in the MWGP 2005.

I read a while back he was planning on rematching Jardine in the summer...Guess not. I'd much rather see this fight now though. This is going to be an absolute war! I'm hoping for a 2nd round KO for Chuck.