Liddell saga is past meeting future

The Chuck Liddell retirement/non-retired soap opera that played out last week, involving Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White and John Hackleman, Liddell's long-time trainer, is likely a prelude to issues we will see on a regular basis in mixed martial arts.

Every great fighter loses that last great battle, the one with Father Time. White shocked everyone in April when he announced that the 39-year-old Liddell's career was over; a stunning admission from a promoter about one of his biggest drawing cards.

White believes Liddell, who has suffered three knockouts in his past five fights, is past his prime, doesn't need the money, and there is no purpose in risking permanent injuries.

"The last thing I want to do is criticize Chuck Liddell," said White, who felt that Mauricio Rua's KO punch that floored Liddell on April 18 in Montreal was a blow the younger Liddell would have walked right through. "I love the guy. But this is a young man's sport.

"There's nothing left for Chuck to prove. He's 40 [Liddell turns 40 at the end of this year]. You want me to put him in with a 26-year-old?"

Hackleman had his own counterpunch for White. "[Lidell's] turning 40, but he's a strong 40," Hackleman said. "I'll be with him whatever he decides to do. If I felt there was even a chance of disability or a brain injury, I wouldn't want him to fight."

Hackleman is angry at White, but he does think the UFC president's intentions are genuine. He argued that the retirement decision should be up to Liddell, and that White's announcement was unprofessional.

"It really bothered Chuck," Hackleman said. "Chuck doesn't like being confrontational. He's a laid-back, easy-going guy. In front of people, he'd like to just get along."

On Sunday night, Liddell said he hasn't decided what he wants to do next, comparing the situation to a child custody battle.

"It's like if you're a kid and your parents don't get along," he said. "They both called me up and talked to me, and they both love me and have my best interests at heart. I love both guys, and I'm not going to take sides. "They've never liked each other. But they've always kept it quiet out of respect for me. Now that it's going back and forth, it's been blown way out of proportion."

It's also gotten personal. Hackleman was furious at White's assertion that the trainer was sacrificing his friend because of money woes.

"Obviously, John Hackleman didn't pay his house off yet," White said in an interview with Sherdog.com last week. "John Hackleman needs some money, because anybody who claims they care about Chuck Liddell even a little bit would not be making these [expletive] statements."

"I'm not going to have any trouble making my house payments," Hackleman said. "I don't live an extravagant life. I don't have a big house. I have a storefront karate studio."

Liddell has one fight left on his UFC deal, and Hackleman said he doesn't know the contractual situation well enough to know if there is a time limit for how long he'd have to wait if UFC won't offer Liddell a fight.

White said Liddell came to Las Vegas after his September 2008 loss to Rashad Evans, and they made an agreement that he would stay out of the clubs and change his camp, which included bringing in Howard Davis, an Olympic gold medalist, as a boxing trainer. But if Liddell's didn't look impressive in beating Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, that would be his last fight.

Hackleman said he didn't know of any agreement, nor did they talk in camp of it being a do-or-die fight.

Combat sports are built around the creation of stars, and in most cases, a fighter's drawing-power prime lags years behind their physical prime.

Whether it be Liddell, Matt Hughes, Randy Couture or Forrest Griffin, every UFC star will reach the day they can no longer compete with the elites. At that point, it would be in their best interest not to fight when it comes to long-term quality of life, because of the damage the punishment can cause to an aging fighter.

White can offer Liddell a job for life, but there are only so many jobs of that type around, and more and more stars are entering their declining years.

"I always say I studied boxing, and use it as the blueprint of what not to do," White said. But even if White hates seeing declining boxers hang on too long, no matter what he does, the cycle appears to be unavoidable, even in MMA.

Let's compare Liddell to 44-year-old Mark Coleman, who fights at UFC 100. Coleman, who is five years older, got tired way too fast to be fighting at the top level in his last fight, a loss to Rua in January. But financially, Coleman isn't on Liddell's level, and there are going to be a lot more Mark Colemans out there than Chuck Liddells.