Liddell vs. Silva Finally a Reality

It's a fight years in the making. It's the fight that fight fans around the world have been waiting for. The biggest fight in Mixed Martial Arts history: Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell vs "The Axe Murderer" Wanderlei Silva has been inked for December at UFC 79:Nemesis.


The question that some people have been asking themselves is "Does this fight still have the impact that it had a year ago?" Liddell, some people think, has lost his edge and seems to be on the downhill slope to retirement. He has lost his last two fights; first by knockout to Quinton Jackson and most recently lost via split decision in a lackluster performance against Keith Jardine. With two consecutive losses, one might think that this fight shouldn't even take place since Liddell hasn't performed too well as of late.

But then again, neither has Silva. Silva is also under the gun after he, too, has lost his last two fights - both by knockout, nonetheless; First he was knocked out by the signature Cro Cop headkick, and lastly by Dan Henderson.

With these two both coming off back-to-back losses, my answer to the question is "Damn right this fight has impact! Damn right this fight should happen!"

Most people said the same thing about Keith Jardine getting a shot at Liddell and not Alexander, and look what happened there. There's no doubt in my mind that Alexander would have pummelled Liddell but Jardine did well also and ended up winning the fight - even knocked the former champ down! So who's to say that Liddell shouldn't get a shot at Silva. Silva, too, has lost two fights in a row and that's the bottom line. This fight makes sense.

Not to mention the fact that there sometimes exceptions to the rules; this exception being that the hype behind this fight far exceeds the requirement to give deserving fighters their just dues. Don't get me wrong; I believe that if a fighter has worked hard, has worked his way up the ladder, and has given exciting performances, that he should be given the fight he deserves.

But lets face it, if this fight doesn't happen now it may never happen. For example, say Dana puts this fight off until both Liddell and Silva have fought other opponents first. Worst case scenario is Liddell loses to his opponent and Silva beats his. Then what? There's no way the UFC can pit Liddell against Silva with Liddell coming off 3 consecutive losses and Silva on his way back to the top. It wouldn't make sense to anyone. So now's the time.

The timing right now still makes this fight a dream come true. We are going to see the former UFC and former PRIDE 205 pound champions going at it after both have lost 2 in a row. If it doesn't make sense now, it never will.

It's a fight that's been promised over and over again but never came to fruition. Let's just hope that it hasn't been destiny that was preventing this fight; if so, destiny might rear it's ugly head again and have one of these fighters become injured and force them to pull out of the fight.

I think that this fight is going to be spectacular. Two of the fight game's best strikers going toe to toe for the first time! I get chills just thinking of it. I'm counting down the days until December 29th when these two will finally "GET IT ON!"