Should he stay or should he go? That’s the questions MMA fans have been asking since UFC 97 last weekend. Some say Chuck Liddell is washed up and should walk away. Some say he’s lost to Top Ten competition and the losses are just part of it.

One man who knows Chuck better than anyone is Coach John “Hack” Hackleman. He’s been Liddell’s trainer over the years and tuns the Pit in San Luis Obispo, CA. ATO caught up with Mr. Hackleman recently and got his thoughts on the retirement talk.

“Chuck can do whatever wants to do,” said Hackleman. “It’s disappointing. He lost to a great champion and that’s no reason to retire. His record is no indicator to retire. He’ll retire when he’s lost the desire to fight or he’s getting hurt. He’s fought 100 times and only been knocked out twice. We’ll talk about it in the next week or so but no one is going to tell him when he’s going to stop fighting.”

Liddell has lost four out of his last five fights. But he has been fighting a who’s who of the 205ers. Shogun Rua, Rashad Evans, and Rampage Jackson have all been champions in PRIDE or the UFC. “Everyone he’s lost to is a champion or a former champion,” said Hackleman. “Even the Jardine fight. It was a one point fight and some people think he won that one.”

Randy Couture faced the same dilemma as Liddell twice in his career. He lost two straight fights in 2002 only to rebound by dropping to light heavyweight and winning the title in June 2003. Couture then went onto retire in February 2006 only to come back a year later and defeat Tim Sylvia for the UFC heavyweight belt.

“A lot of people thought Randy Couture was done at heavyweight and he went to Light Heavyweight and won a title,” said Hackleman. “He lost to Chuck a couple of times then they said he was done again and he went to heavyweight and won another title. It’s up to Chuck.”

But would Chuck Liddell ever fight somewhere besides the UFC? “I don’t care what his contract says, said Hackleman. “If it went to court you can’t stop someone from their livelihood. If he’s under contract with the UFC they have to give him a fight or if they don’t they have to let him go. They just can’t say you aren’t going to fight. Chuck is still under contract and they have to give him a fight or let him go.”

Dana White has come out and publicly stated that Chuck was done and UFC 97 was the last time he would be competeting in the octagon. Hackleman understands Dana’s point of view and understands it’s a complicated decision when you mix business and a close personal friendship. “I have to trains of thoughts, said Hackleman. “One, Dana can do what he wants because he has two multi-millionaires as his partners. It’s his ballgame. He can play it anyway he wants. It doesn’t have to be good business because they make so much money. He can make a bad business decision and still make a lot of money.”

“On the other side of that I think a big part of his decision making is that he cares for Chuck,” said Hackleman. “He cares for his well being. I think he think he’s looking out for him. It’s irritating. He spouts off sometimes and he has the big boys backing him with the money but he does care for Chuck. That’s his first concern.”

It seems that there is still a lot of money left to be made with rematches with Rampage and Rashad Evans but Hackleman doesn’t think so. “I don’t think Chuck cares about his fights, said Hacklamen. “He wanted to fight Tito because he didn’t like him and for some reason he wanted to beat Vernon White. Most of the time he doesn’t care. If someone beats him he doesn’t like it but he says oh well, I’ve beat plenty of people. He doesn’t want a rematch just because he got beat. He’s the Ice Man. He’s kind of cold about that.”

But apparently Liddell has still make a decision but already has made some plans for when he does choose to retire. “When he does retire he will help me run the gym and work on the coaching aspect, said Hackleman. “He enjoys teaching and it’s what he said he would do when he walks away from competing.”

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 26th, 2009 at 4:13 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.