A lot on the line in Liddell vs Rua
The co and main events certainly are something to salivate over, but before we get to the main fight of the night fans are surely going to be entertained by Chuck Liddell and Mauricio Rua beforehand.
The Iceman is coming off a knockout loss at the hands of now champion Rashad Evans, and is surely going to be hungry to get back in the win column, while Shogun is coming off a decision victory over UFC hall of famer Mark Coleman.
In each of their last fights neither fighter looked the greatest; obviously when you get caught with a shot and go down like Liddell it's tough to call the fight successful though he was winning the fight before that punch. In the case of Rua, he didn't look in his top form and barely looks the shell of the fighter were seen dominate in the PRIDE promotion years back.
So what can we expect when these two warriors enter the Octagon on April 18th?
Well flat out, it's going to be a war, and ultimately a battle of wits.
In my book, Liddell has the striking advantage hands down, if you are new to the sport check out his fights with Wanderlai Silva, Tito Ortiz, Vernon White and Renato Sobral they give you a good description of the destruction Liddell can cause with his hands and feet. Simply put, the guy hits like a truck and it's only going to take one shot to put out Rua.
The main point not to forget about Liddell is his strong wrestling skills; remember this guy didn't come into the UFC as a striker he has a wrestling background. When it comes to Liddell though it's not his offensive style of wrestling that he uses so well, he's arguably the hardest guy in MMA to takedown; the use of his defensive style of wrestling makes him a hard guy to beat by submission or ground and pound because you simply can't get him to that spot in the fight.
With that being said, we don't know much about the ground game of Liddell. You can chalk it up as a question mark as many MMA fighters have advanced Jiu-Jitsu games, including the Brazilian native Rua. Liddell is noted as having a Purple Belt in Jiu-Jitsu so if the game does go to the ground, which I'm not expecting, it could be trouble for the former Light Heavyweight Champ. Rua is a Brazilian, with a Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, so no matter who Rua goes up against, chances are he's going to be at the very least even when it comes to the submission game.
The deciding factor in this fight however is ultimately who has more in the tank. In his most recent fights, Rua looked terrible cardio-wise when it came to the later rounds, it was bad against Forrest Griffin and it got worse when he fought a 44-year-old Mark Coleman, a man who he should have beaten his elder counter-part in a cardio matchup.
In the case of Liddell, it seems as though he should be able to go the distance of 15 minutes if it comes to that. He proved it by putting in a solid 15 minutes against Wanderlai Silva, and even though he lost the fight, it was a full 15 minute fight against Keith Jardine that Liddell didn't lose steam on when it came to conditioning. The advantage has to go to the Iceman if the fight hits the third round and cardio becomes a factor.
This fight means so much in the careers of both of these fighters. For Rua, it's not as much a make or break fight because he does in fact have a W in his last fight, but he looked less then impressive and we all know that the UFC is not afraid to let boring fighters go. It's sad knowing the promise he had coming into the UFC from PRIDE, at that time remember many people considered Rua the best that the 205 division had to offer in terms of fighters and he simply hasn't delivered the goods yet in the UFC.
In Liddell's case, he's straight up been publicly called out by UFC President Dana White with White saying “...dazzle me or hang em' up” with respect to Liddell's career. You know Liddell is coming in motivated after that call out from his boss and close friend, Dana White.
