Chuck interview
From www.mmaweekly.com
So how does Chuck Liddell look here in Las Vegas? Look above and below and that should answer a lot of questions. MMAWeekly's Ryan Bennett said "I've never seen Chuck in better shape....ever. He is in better shape now than the Babalu fight."
He see's how people have taken him off the radar of being one of the best at 205. He understands he has the ultimate stage to make the ultimate statement. Against his chief rival and former friend Tito Ortiz.
The Iceman sat down and went one on one with MMAWeekly talking about his fight tomorrow night and what he expects at Mandalay Bay for UFC 47.
Ryan: Let me ask you this, have you changed your training for maybe the last two fights, it was interesting because I know, the Quinton Jackson fight especially I know there was a lot of new guys brought in to kind of help you out, are you doing anything different from the training from Quinton Jackson to this fight?
Chuck: Yeah I’m back to training my way kinda, in fact I’m training at home, working out with Cal Poly, which is a good time because they’re in season right now.
Ryan: Cal Poly part of the wrestling team, they wrestle in the Pac-10 for those who don’t know it’s one of the weird things, Cal Poly Mustangs are a part of the Big West Conference except for wrestling, part of the Pac-10 with of course Arizona State, Boise State and all those schools. You mention it, those guys right now trying to get ready for the Pac-10 championships, now is good time for you to wrestle with them in their in season.
Chuck: Yeah.
Ryan: They got some big boys that are pretty good, couple guys ranked nationally right?
Chuck: Yeah they do, they got some good guys, and a couple guys I used to wrestle with coming in.
Ryan: Hey Chuck let me ask you about your collegiate wrestling career, you wrestled at Cal Poly, you wrestled Division 1 as we were just talking about, how good of a wrestler were you back then?
Chuck: I mean I was okay, I started all four years, I got hurt a lot but I was about .500. I won some lost some beat some good guys, lost to some guys that shouldn’t have beat me.
Ryan: What was your weight wrestling in college?
Chuck: I wrestled at, actually 167 177 and 190.
Ryan: 167!
Chuck: Yeah I looked like I was cutting pretty hard for that.
Ryan: No kidding man, what are 6’2” 6’3”?
Chuck: 6’2” yeah.
Ryan: How are you cutting to 167 at 6’2” bro?
Chuck: It was a tough cut, actually my coach after I wrestled a couple matches told me to put the weight back on because he didn’t want me wrestling at that weight.
Ryan: Yeah no kidding man, you must have looked like an anorexic man, I can’t imagine you at 167.
Chuck: Yeah I looked pretty bad.
Ryan: You still had the mohawk back then?
Chuck: Yeah my last year.
Ryan: That’s a funny story, people don’t realize how you got the mohawk, tell everybody how that happened.
Chuck: I mean I had my hair cut short for a long time when I was growing up and I wasn’t even allowed to grow my hair out till high school at all and it’s still pretty short, a bunch of my buddies were going to a Slayer concert and everyone was going to shave their heads and I had my head shaved forever and I’m not going to shave my head, so we decided to put me in a mohawk and I just wound up keeping it.
Ryan: At a Slayer concert?
Chuck: Yeah.
Ryan: You’re still a big Slayer guy aren’t you?
Chuck: Yeah I went and saw them last year.
Ryan: What do you listen to, you listen to Slayer what else do you listen to?
Chuck: I listen to everything, I listen to a lot of country, I listen to more country than anything. It’s mellow music.
Ryan: What do you listen to right before you fight?
Chuck: I listen to country for most of the time, as it gets a little closer I’ll start ripping into some of my Slayer type music, Slayer Hatebreed stuff like that.
Ryan: You got a routine, I mean it sounds like you play a little country a few hours out and then when you get closer to your fight you throw a little Slayer?
Chuck: Yeah I pick it up a little bit, you know, there’s no reason to get hyped up five hours before my fight, so I just relax and listen to my country.
Ryan: Okay this is a true story, so I’m back stage I was doing a story for the local NBC here and it was back at UFC 37.5 and this is right before Chuck was to fight in the main event against Vitor Belfort, so we have our cameras rolling, this is like three hours before the fight and my man’s asleep no lie. All these guys are hyped up a couple hours before their fight I go back into Chuck’s dressing room my man’s asleep, you’re sleeping like three hours before a fight bro.
Chuck: Well they sent us over there because we were staying at a different hotel than we were fighting at, so they all made us go over there really early, we were there like five hours early or something so I took a nap for a couple hours. It was an earlier fight so we had to get up around 10 or 11 so I was up kinda of early.
Ryan: That was crazy man I couldn’t believe it, all these other guys like you said a few hours before the fight all jacked up, I walk by your locker room and you’re taking a nap that’s why they call you the Iceman cool under pressure right?
Chuck: Yup that’s how I got the nickname.
Ryan: Chuck let me ask you, last couple fights haven’t been two of your better performances, last fight to Quinton Rampage Jackson tough loss for you, what have you learned there was a time where you won I can’t remember how many matches straight 12 or 13, you had couple year win streak and then you lose two out of three what do you learn in the losses?
Chuck: Well you learn more from losses than you do from wins but I try to learn something every time I go out there but you know they were just tough fights and I’d like a shot at both those guys again, I think I can put it together and beat them but that will have to happen after Tito.
Ryan: Let me ask you, the Quinton Jackson fight you knew Quinton was a tough guy, did he surprise you in any way maybe with standing up taking him down what was the biggest surprise to you in the fight?
Chuck: Well he didn’t really surprise me, he could take a punch, I mean I put it on him quite a few times and he could take a shot.
Ryan: That was the thing that I found interesting you know everyone was kinda dogging you about your performance but the one thing that Quinton did say in Japan a couple months ago is that he’s never ever been hit like that before, and that was one of the reasons why when he took on Wanderlei Silva he just said man I was kinda out of it walking to the ring, the body shots you laid into him were incredible and he just never took shots like that before. Were you surprised when you hit him that he was still in front of you?
Chuck: You know I wouldn’t say surprised I mean I didn’t know how good his chin was before but after he can take a shot so you know.
Ryan: Let me ask you, some people say now that Randy Couture and Quinton Jackson have quote unquote exposed your game, what do you say to that?
Chuck: I don’t think so, exposed my game I mean I haven’t tried to hide what my game was at any period of time, you know you got to come out and beat me at my game on any given day you know at the top end of the game maybe someone can but they still have to watch me fight I’m going to beat these people. Tito thinks he’s going to beat me he’s wrong.
Ryan: Chuck let me ask you. Tito Ortiz this is a fight you’ve wanted for a very very very long time, it’s finally coming about. Let me ask you did you ever think you would ever fight Tito Ortiz?
Chuck: I’d figured it happen sooner or later it would work it’s way out sooner or later you know. Every once in a while you know like when I lost to Randy I was a little disappointed because I thought that took the pressure off him to fight me and different things happened where I kept letting him off the hook but now he’s fighting me so great, I got to get my shot at him.
Ryan: Chuck do you have a psychological advantage over Tito Ortiz?
Chuck: Yeah I think I do. He’s sparred with me trained with me, he knows how hard I hit before I get out there.
Ryan: Let me ask you about that and I know it’s been years ago and that’s what people are going to say that was few years ago but from all accounts you dominated those training sessions right?
Chuck: Well yeah but once again I tell everybody when you come down to looking at that stuff, training is training, you’re working on things you’re working on doing stuff and it’s training but yeah I mean He’s going to have real tough time with me.
Ryan: What’s the toughest part Tito is going to with you on April 2nd?
Chuck: Well the toughest part would be he doesn’t like getting hit on and I’m gonna hit him.
Ryan: Watching Tito’s game he’s always been good at taking guys down yet he could not take down Randy Couture which surprised some people. Are you worried about his takedown skills against you?
Chuck: Well I mean you got to worry a little bit about it but I mean I think I’m as good or better wrestler than he is as far as takedowns go. So I’m not really concerned about it and I’m sure if he does get a takedown here and there I’ll be able to get out of it, I’ll be able to get back up.
Ryan: So you feel you’re a better wrestler than Tito Ortiz?
Chuck: Yeah.
Ryan: Was that manifested in your training sessions?
Chuck: Yeah.
Ryan: Did you train with Carlson Gracie Sr.?
Chuck: Yeah I trained with him for a couple days. He came out, a really nice guy worked on a few things with him, he was fun to work with.
Ryan: What was it like working with him, what were the things that he brought to the table?
Chuck: He’s a real knowledgeable guy about the sport. He’s a really nice guy.
Ryan: Was Mario Sperry there?
Chuck: No he wasn’t.
Ryan: I was just making sure man. My boy Hackleman always tells me that you’re training with Mario Sperry and so is he though.
Chuck: I know.
Ryan: What’s up with him and Sperry man?
Chuck: I like Mario Sperry. It’s just always been, I think it started out as trying to dog him trying to give him a hard time because John liked doing that kind of stuff and then he met him and he really liked the guy.
Ryan: Good stuff. It’s always hilarious talking to Hackleman man he’s always talking about our boy Mario Sperry. You mentioned your training who else, sounds like a some other guys are coming to the gym, who else you going to be training with over this next month?
Chuck: I’m not sure exactly, we got a few different people talking about coming up and we’ll see I’m not sure exactly.
Ryan: I heard some names like Matt Lindland some of the guys from Caesar Gracie’s camp?
Chuck: I’m not sure. John’s working on that stuff, so I don’t really care.
Ryan: Chuck a couple other questions about your last couple fights. What was the difference in those fights, because some people said he didn’t look like the same Chuck Liddell?
Chuck: Well you know I just wasn’t there, I don’t know exactly what I was doing wrong. Hopefully I figured out for this fight so I think I got going.
Ryan: Did you feel different physically in those fights?
Chuck: I don’t think I did physically.
Ryan: Some people say going to Japan that’s a hard thing. How tough is it to go over to Japan and fight?
Chuck: I don’t mind going over there and fighting. It usually doesn’t bother me too much going there at least I don’t think it does.
Ryan: Chuck some people say whoever loses this fight their career’s not over but they feel like the main event status is and their chance to get a title could be. Do you feel that pressure, there is a lot of pressure in this fight because its one Tito/Chuck two because the loser is on a losing streak, what do you say, do you feel the extra pressure going into this fight?
Chuck: I don’t know that I feel pressure but I realize that’s how it goes it’s a huge fight for both of us and one of us is right back in the mix for a title shot and the other one probably not in the main event for awhile.
Ryan: Are you going to push the pace against Tito like you did against Babalu?
Chuck: Yeah oh yeah, I’m gonna keep on him and make him work especially on his feet.
Ryan: Let me ask you, Tito of course wants to get you down and ground and pound you. You want to keep it on the feet, do you have to be more of a counter puncher so you don’t get taken down or how do you approach this fight?
Chuck: You don’t have to necessarily be a counter puncher to stop a guy from taking you down. It’s actually harder for them to take you down when you’re hitting them in the head. It doesn’t allow them to set up.
Ryan: What advantages you have over Tito in this fight?
Chuck: My biggest advantage in the fight is the fact he’s gonna have real tough time taking me down and he’s afraid of my hands. Those two things put together gonna make it really hard for him to take me down and he’s gonna need to take me down to win. He’s not going to be able to stand and strike with me.
Ryan: I look forward to it man I always look forward to it. Chuck always appreciate it man, I’ll let you get back to your little Starbucks bro.
Chuck: Alright thanks.
Ryan: Alright Chuck talk to you soon bud take care.
Chuck: Take care bye.
Toll, prima alles in ENGLISCH! 
