Chuck Liddell has words for Kimbo Slice
Chuck Liddell had some words for Kimbo Slice in The Sun about how he thinks Kimbo might be a bit overrated:
“Kimbo’s one of those guys who doesn’t have any ground game. He’s training and he’s learning but he’s been built up as such a big star and that’s the thing that bothers me. People talk about him like he’s the next great thing when he really hasn’t done anything. He’s been built up because of the Internet and him beating a bunch of guys on the street.”
And Liddell joked: “I could make some impressive knockout videos too if you let me walk outside and just punch people and knock them out – “hey you, come fight!”
Who are these people that are calling Kimbo Slice the next big thing? EliteXC maybe? I have harped on this very website about how we still don’t really know anything about Kimbo Slice’s game except that his boxing is clean and that he punches extremely hard. Beyond that, that’s it. I’ve never proclaimed him to be the next champion or one of the best fighters right now.
Where I think Liddell might be making a mistake is in the fact that yes, lots of people have talked about the “phenomenon of Kimbo Slice.” I think he’s mistaking that for people saying that Kimbo is actually a good fighter at this point in his career. He has a ton of marketability and he draws serious interest, but he is nowhere near the caliber of fighter that Liddell thinks people are making him out to be.
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April 1st, 2008 at 2:30 pm
I don’t know, man. If Chuck didn’t get Kimbo off his feet, I think that would be a very interesting fight.
April 1st, 2008 at 2:39 pm
I think most people like Chuck gets the perception from Gary Shaw and the recent CBS commercials.
I for one agree with what Liddell is saying.
April 1st, 2008 at 2:40 pm
How can we even begin to speculate that would be the case Sam? His first two fights were complete shams and there’s nothing to be taken from them. If legit bloggers and hardcores hold speculative opinions like yours, I could see why Chuck would be angry.
Off-topic- I’m in Denver and headed to the weighins this afternoon. As I mentioned before this is my first live MMA-event, and I’m pretty geeked up. I’m not much of a photo-taker, but I’ll write up my noob experience and post it on Thursday sometime. Word.
April 1st, 2008 at 2:53 pm
I dont know who Kimbo’s handlers r but they shouldve talked this guy about going into boxing instead. his boxing seems decent and there’s really not anyone that good in boxing at the HW division
April 1st, 2008 at 2:53 pm
The fact that blog writers are dubious about Kimbo hardly matters.
I don’t think Chuck reads your site.
April 1st, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Kimbo would knock out Liddell. If you have two hard punchers, the one with more weight is going to win. Kimbo also has some technique, something Liddell doesn’t want to admit. Liddell’s opinion doesn’t surprise me, though, considering we are dealing with competing organizations: EliteXC and UFC.
April 1st, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Apparently Chuck doesn’t read this blog… We should all start sending him links! lol!
Seriously though I think that Chuck could, if he wanted to, shoot and take Kimbo down at any time, as he showed against Silva. And though it would be a fun fight to watch, I feel pretty safe in saying Chuck is the better striker…
April 1st, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Goo:
You would be surprised.
April 1st, 2008 at 3:09 pm
#2 LOL Zack, so I can’t even remark that I think it would be an interesting fight? Can you please give me a list of the things I can and can’t say?
People can say whatever they want, but you need to respect Kimbo’s hands and his chin.
And #4, you be shocked if you knew who reads this site.
April 1st, 2008 at 3:12 pm
@ #5, kimbo doesn’t outweigh chuck really. Chuck already cuts 15-20 to make 205 and he could weigh a lot more if he moved up a class. the height would be the same and the weight difference would be negligible. I think chuck’s more well-rounded game and long reach would give him a serious advantage.
April 1st, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Adam:
First, Chuck never said that “people [are] saying that Kimbo is actually a good fighter at this point in his career”. According to your article he said, “People talk about him like he’s the next great thing when he really hasn’t done anything”. Which is true. You never quoted him as saying that people say Kimbo is a good fighter.
Second, I doubt Chuck reads any blogs. Maybe other fighters read this site but I don’t see Chuck being on the Internet a lot.
I feel bad for Kimbo because people talk a lot of trash about him the hype isn’t his fault. He said at the Le vs. Shamrock fight that he is just starting out and he is not a legend, even though he was called one on the show. If I was thrust into the spotlight by EliteXC I wouldn’t say I don’t deserve this, stop promoting me and paying me so much. I don’t think anyone would but somehow he gets the blame for being in the right place at the right time.
Sam:
You of all people shouldn’t be feeding into this hype. There is nothing to base your comment about it being an “intersting fight” on. There are a lot of fighters who are 2-0 who have no business fighting Chuck Liddell. Forget about everything on YouTube (which means nothing in MMA, I think the point Chuck was making) and all the hype you hear and Give Kimbo some mid level competition before you even think about how he could do against Chuck. The fact is people are making Kimbo more than he is for fights that mean NOTHING on YouTube. That is all that Chuck was saying. I don’t blame Kimbo for it, but respectable sites should not add to the hype. I have lost a lot of respect for you the last couple of weeks.
April 1st, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Houston Alexander and Brian Stann have crazy knockout power too but they don’t receive half as much hype. Granted they are 205 pounders but so is Chuck. Also Houston did lose a fight but that is because he was fighting top 10 guys. Gary Shaw is not going to put Kimbo against a decent fighter until people, especially respected MMA writers like Sam give him a reason to. As long as people keep hyping Kimbo there is no reason to make him take a fight he could lose. It’s a similar situation to Fedor. He fought cans and it took years before people started saying, “hey, maybe this guy isn’t the best anymore”. And now that there is pressure for Fedor to fight someone good, it is a lot more likely to happen. Fedor’s managment might keep it from happening but if he doesn’t fight someone soon he will be considered a has been whether he is or not. Do we really need to wait 2 years before we put the pressure on Gary Shaw to give Kimbo a good opponent?
April 1st, 2008 at 3:52 pm
And Sam, before you give me the “Can you please give me a list of the things I can and can’t say” response, I never said you couldn’t say it. I only said that being a respected member of the MMA community you shouldn’t.
April 1st, 2008 at 3:53 pm
“I dont know who Kimbo’s handlers r but they shouldve talked this guy about going into boxing instead. his boxing seems decent and there’s really not anyone that good in boxing at the HW division”
Why would Kimbo want to do boxing? It’s easier for him to go in and knock some one out with a 5 oz. glove then a pair of 16 oz gloves. I think he’s doing the right thing by going into MMA. I like Kimbo and I followed him before he entered into MMA, but I’m still not sold on him having a decent ground game.
I’m hoping that someone will be willing to expose his ground game, and if he does end up fighting James Thompson then I can see Thompson really trying to take the fight to the ground.
April 1st, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Mike, can you please tell what I should and shouldn’t be saying then?
Me of all people? I’m not allowed to give my personal opinion that I’d be interested to see a fight between Liddell and Kimbo?
So I guess I shouldn’t say that I’d be personally interested to see a fight between Batman and Superman?
April 1st, 2008 at 4:04 pm
I heard a rumor that Dana White already has batman under contract.
April 1st, 2008 at 4:20 pm
…and now Dana is saying that Superman is a pussy!
April 1st, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Sam,
You seem to be upset. That is not my goal here. I thought Adam did a good job of stating that, “I have harped on this very website about how we still don’t really know anything about Kimbo Slice’s game”. He has, and that is what this site should be saying. You are free to express your opinion like everyone else. My point is that coming from you, especially when it is the first post on the article, it feeds into the hype. If you had prefaced your opinion with “while I would like to see Kimbo prove himself with some higher caliber fighers first…” it would have come off better to me. That is just my opinion though. Take it for what it is worth.
And by the way, Batman and Superman both train in the Justice League Camp so they probably wouldn’t fight each other anyway.
April 1st, 2008 at 4:26 pm
I’d like to see Chuck and Kimbo fight, but I am also confident Chuck would win. Hell, I’d like to see a lot of fights that I’m pretty sure would be lopsided. Sometimes a fight with a big underdog can be very exciting.
April 1st, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Whenever there’s talk about Kimbo, I always have to rely on the Rutten Factor. If Kimbo had come to MMA, trained with his own guys and talked trash, then I could say that I hope the hype kills him.
BUT, he seems to be taking it seriously and working with Bas gives him instant credibility in my book. No one can control how they’re hyped by their promoters and I haven’t seen Kimbo buy into it.
The path he takes after this initial EliteXC/CBS hype plateaus is where his character will really count. He can either ride the hype train and continue to beat cans while taking the big paycheck up until retirement, OR he can fight a few cans, establish his name and then work his way up the rankings mountain. The latter means taking on mid and upper level opponents and possibly jumping orgs (i.e. going where the talent it). I’m praying he goes with the latter choice and becomes a legend — but he’ll need to match his power with some ground skills/defense.
April 1st, 2008 at 4:40 pm
I agree with you comletely D. Kimbo is training with top level guys and has been the first one to try to slow down the hype about himself.
April 1st, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Who has Bas trained besides Kerr…anyone know?
April 1st, 2008 at 4:47 pm
@#22
Bang Ludwig IIRC
April 1st, 2008 at 5:00 pm
why do i have the feeling that even once Kimbo DOES take a fight to the ground.. and wins there.. he still won’t get credit.. before his fights w/ Cantrell and Tank.. he GnP’d and got a guillotine victory.. apparently it was just an exhibition.. but it was a submission victory..
trust me people.. Kimbo has a ground game.. it may not be amazing.. but i don’t think he’ll look like Mike Kyle [recently armbar’d in under a minute] or Brock Lesnar [recently kneebar’d in just over a minute] whenever it does go to the ground..
April 1st, 2008 at 5:03 pm
oh ya.. and when you’re training with guys like Mayhem Miller and Bas Rutten.. i don’t think it’s even possible to not have a ground game..
April 1st, 2008 at 5:16 pm
@#24 Dunno if you’ve seen Mike Kyle’s other fights, but that fight was just a very bad showing. Perhaps his game has gone down the shitter of late, but he has been doing MMA for a long time and has looked a lot better than that on the ground. I would bet money that his groundwork is better than Kimbo’s.
April 1st, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Mike sounds like a d-bag.
April 1st, 2008 at 5:40 pm
#26,
i’ve only seen mike kyle’s fights with Irvin, his fight with Wes Simms, and the controversial stomping incident.. there might be one or two i’m forgetting..
but i would still say that Kimbo’s got good ground skills.. i know he didn’t have to worry about them agains Cantrell or Tank.. but.. eventually he’ll have to show them.. and i KNOW people will be suprised..
April 1st, 2008 at 7:23 pm
@#28
What are you basing that on? his behind the scenes training interviews? he’s never really shown his groundgame yet in a fight. im not sure where your faith is coming from.
April 1st, 2008 at 9:46 pm
#29,
read #25,
if you’re working with guys like mayhem and bas.. you’re not just going to be training strictly boxing..
and i liked his ground work in his fight with ray mercer.. it didn’t look like the work of a GnP expert.. but for his first actual MMA fight.. it was good.. and you know it’s only gotten better.. if you’re being built up in an organization.. you can’t just hope that every single fighter is going to stand with you.. i mean, he hasn’t had to worry w/ BO or TANK.. but eventually they’re gonna give him a sub’ist.. or at least a wrestler.. and he’s gonna have to know his shit..
that’s why i’m so confident.. i know we haven’t seen his ground work.. much.. but.. he’s supposed to the EXC’s biggest superstar.. how is the biggest superstar of an organization going to be 1 dimentional..
April 1st, 2008 at 10:03 pm
We’ll see. I’m not going to accept that he has a good ground game just cause he works with Mayhem. Bas doesn’t even rate really imho, he had some simple subs early in his Pancrase career but didn’t prove to be that great of a ground player when the game began evolving.
I’m not counting him out but you are completely speculating at this point. For all we know his groundgame still sucks. It’s not like he just absorbs groundskill by being in the vicinity of Miller and Rutten.
April 1st, 2008 at 10:04 pm
And Rich, this is just a gem of reasoning:
that’s why i’m so confident.. i know we haven’t seen his ground work.. much.. but.. he’s supposed to the EXC’s biggest superstar.. how is the biggest superstar of an organization going to be 1 dimentional..
Comedy gold, man. Comedy gold.
April 1st, 2008 at 10:19 pm
HexRei.
Come on man, you can’t knock Rutten’s ground game, you don’t get to be a two time king of Pancrase for nothing. I saw the exhibition match against Mercer and Kimbo’s ground game was sloppy at best and the guillotine that he pulled would not work on any decent HW. No doubt it has probably improved a lot since then but Kimbo really needs to avoid anyone with good wrestling for a while…… someone like ricco rodriguez would wipe the floor with him
April 1st, 2008 at 11:56 pm
“Comedy gold, man. Comedy gold.”
how so…?
April 2nd, 2008 at 12:44 am
…because your argument in that paragraph basically boils down to “EliteXC is promoting him heavily, so he must have groundgame”. Which makes no sense.
It doesn’t matter if he’s the biggest superstar in the world, his ground game is still totally unproven and given the relatively short amount of time he’s been training it (what, a year or two?) and the fact that he didn’t start training it seriously until he was past age thirty i’m betting it’s still pretty rudimentary.
Don’t be misled, EliteXC has made him a superstar cause he MAKES THEM MONEY. Not because he’s the best fighter in the world or something.
April 2nd, 2008 at 12:53 am
Sam - I wasn’t trying to tell you what to think/say/do - I was just disagreeing, and by disagreeing pointing to why I think Chuck is upset.
Not sure why you had to go scorched earth on me.
April 2nd, 2008 at 1:29 am
Zack, don’t feel bad. Sam doesn’t like anyone to contradict him. I don’t think you deserved the response he gave you but that just my opinion.
April 2nd, 2008 at 4:48 am
You just said Chuck thinks that Kimbo’s overrated but Chuck’s wrong and Kimbo’s overrated.
I don’t know Adam Morgan but you confused me.
P.S. Your both right Kimbo hasn’t and wont fight a good grappler for a while. Its a farce until he does. It’s not K1 or boxing it’s MMA.
April 2nd, 2008 at 6:45 am
Chuck would own kimbo with a knockout! It’s that simple. Chuck is upset because a street brawler is getting credit without any legitimate fights under his belt.
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:22 am
Chuck got KTFO’d by Rampage….I’m pretty sure Kimbo hits harder that Quinton. I like too how Chuck is criticizing Kimbo fighting cans so far. Know who his first 2 fights were against? Was it top quality opponents? Couture? Randleman? Try Noe Hernandez and Jose Landi-Jons. Yeah..never heard of them either. His 3rd opponent was a big step up in Jeremy Horn. And Chuck got triangled. Yes, the hype machine on Slice is huge, but it’s not his fault. I think he’s going to turn out to be more well rounded than he gets credit for, we just have to be patient. He’ll face tougher fighters in the near future.
April 2nd, 2008 at 11:49 am
lmao ….. 16 and 16 … hi-F’in-larious !!
April 2nd, 2008 at 11:50 am
whoops! lmao …. 16 and 17 …
April 11th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Chuck Liddell vs Kimbo Slice. Kimbo. Just knocked out Tank Abbott face first on the canvas. In the first round, you suckers can sleep on Kimbo if you want too.
April 11th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
You tube or not, he’s knocking out suckers.
April 11th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
kimbo will probably never be the greatest fighter ever but he could end up being respectable and you have to start somewhere. i dont think chuck was the best thing ever when he started and to tell ya truth i dont think he has exactly been tearing it up lately. he been talking a lot though and some of it worries me. bashing fedor is funny because if they could fight open weight right now chuck would be fighting the rest of his career from a wheelchair.kimbos internet fights were on the up and up so i have no problems with that , but if chuck wants to go around and just beat people up he would just eventually probably fuck with the wrong type of person and chuck would be no more.
April 12th, 2008 at 7:27 am
what is mike#12 talking about? youre comparing fedor and kimbo, you have no buisness doing that. and who ever said fedor wasnt the best any more. makes no sense at all.
April 25th, 2008 at 12:28 am
Kimbo Slice Vs Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell
Reach advantage: Chuck
Knockout power: Either fighter could knock the other out with one clean shot.
Experience: Chuck
Takedowns: Chuck
Takedown defense: Chuck
Submission: Chuck
Submission defense: Chuck
Chin: Kimbos was knocked out cold by Forrest Griffin in a SPARRING session, so Chuck.
Heart: Both
Cardio: The same
Verdict: Chuck
Chuck Liddell’s martial arts background: Chuck was born a fighter. He started Koei Kan Karate (a form of full contact karate) at age 12. He started wrestling at age 16, eventually becoming captain of his D-1 wrestling team at San Louis Obispo, California. He eventually started training with John Hackleman in his late teens, based on Hacklemans local reputation as an extremely talented boxer and kickboxer. Chuck initially competed in boxing and kickboxing, winning many kickboxing and boxing tournaments during this time, all this time training with John Hackleman. He eventually entered MMA a few years later, making it into the UFC shortly after, and the rest is history.
Kimbo Slice’s martial arts background: Kimbo Slice has been training MMA with fighting legend Bas ‘El Guapo’ Rutten for the past 18 months or so, after engaging in many street fights which posted on youtube, giving him popularity.
Verdict: Chuck
Chucks MMA experience: Has fought and beat some of the toughest guys in the MMA world. Wanderlei, Babalu, Ortiz, Couture, Horn, White, Monson, Randleman, Mezger, Overeem. Very experienced and seasoned to fighting the best in the world.
Kimbo’s MMA experience: Kimbo has fought noone with any credibility.
Verdict: Chuck
OK, biased opinion time.
Chuck is better then Kimbo Slice. He has fought much tougher guys, is more versatile, he has very good counter punching, something which will work against Kimbo. He also has excellent wrestling and will be able to take Kimbo down with ease if Kimbo manages to clip him. Based on Chucks last fight with Wandy he is very skilled at keeping a good distance on his opponents. From this distance he will jab away at Kimbo and regularly fire off huge overhand rights, batter Kimbos legs with kicks, limit Kimbos footwork go for head kicks occassionly, and go for a couple of takedowns and use some GnP to soften Kimbo up, if he used a mixed bag of mixed martial arts (boxing, kickboxing and wrestling) Kimbo will have absolutely no hope, KIMBO WILL GO DOOOOOOWWWWWWWNNN!!!!
The only way I see Kimbo have a punchers chance is if Chuck becomes too proud and gets inside with Kimbo and participated in an active slugfest. However even if this occurred I would see Chucks solid chin prevailing.
Sorry Kimbo nuthuggers, he has no hope.
April 25th, 2008 at 12:33 am
If Chuck did post a bunch of videos on youtube of him knocking out random people, boy would he be popular
April 25th, 2008 at 12:56 am
ctownhood. Chucks second opponent actually was a very skilled tough kickboxer with some good ground. He was in his prime at the time Chuck fought him, and went on to fight in Pride a few times and did pretty well. Compared to Kimbo, this is gold.