Russ Spence
Commercial Pressure Wash Expert
when it comes to outrageous statements in interviews (who is?), but ‘The Iceman’ remains one of the fight game’s most fascinating figures, in and out of the Octagon, and a true icon of mixed martial arts.
This Saturday, Liddell puts his UFC light heavyweight crown on the line for the fifth time against the last man to beat him, the aforementioned Jackson, and in this compilation of quotes from this reporter’s interviews with Liddell from over the last few years, you get a sense of not only where the champion has been, but where he’s at in the world’s fastest growing sport.
On growing up in California and his first introduction to fighting (2003)
“I actually got lucky because a lot of my friends got in trouble. I never actually got in that much trouble fighting, and I fought quite a bit growing up. Other than that I was a pretty good kid. I got good grades in school, but I got in quite a few fights here and there. I always liked the competition of fighting.”
On telling his family that he was going to put his Accounting degree aside to become a pro fighter (2003)
“My mom was behind me and my grandpa was behind me. My grandma was the only one who was like, ‘You’ve got your degree, why don’t you go get a real job?’ It worked out for me I think.”
On his greatest influences (2003)
“My grandpa was my greatest influence and so was my mom. They always supported me, no matter what I did. My grandpa told me that I could beat anybody in the world back when I started kickboxing. I wish he were here to see me now. He believed I could beat anybody back then.”
On the state of MMA in 2003 (2003)
“I’m hoping it gets bigger and bigger. I think it’s grown a lot in the last couple of years. It got more exposure and hopefully it will get more and more coverage from the mainstream media.”
On winning the UFC belt, before his first fight with Randy Couture (2003)
“Everyone talks about the belt, and for a lot of my friends and fans, I’d like to get that belt. But for me, I just want to beat people. I want to beat the best guys in the world. That’s all that matters to me.”
On his fight with Kevin Randleman, which he won in the first round (2003)
“That’s one of the first fights I had where even a lot of my friends were worried.”
On his trademark post-fight yell (2003)
“I’m just excited. I don’t get very excited very often about too many things, but that’s one of the things I do. I prepare for two to three months for a guy, and you end it quickly like that or you have a good fight and you win, I’m excited.”
On where his competitive nature comes from (2003)
“I couldn’t tell you. From chess to checkers when I was a kid, I’ve always been competitive. I hate to lose. I hate to lose at anything. I’ve gotten a lot better about mellowing out about fun games, but there was a time when I’d get pissed about everything. Whether it was shooting pool or anything, I just hated losing. I’ve kind of moved that focus and tried to keep it to my professional life.”
On his rematch with Couture (2005)
“We’re both professionals. I’m a competitor, I hate losing and I hate that I lost to him. I want to avenge that loss – I’ve wanted to for two years now. He’s a competitor and he wants to beat me again, but I don’t think he can beat me again. We’re both going to go out there and try to beat each other every time we go out. It’s not a big deal that we don’t have any animosity – I don’t need that to beat a guy in the ring.”
On fighting someone he likes (2005)
“When I’m out there I have no remorse. I won’t hold back at all. If I’ve got him hurt, I’m gonna try to hurt him. Of course as soon as the fight’s over I hope he’s okay. But I’m sure he’s the same way; he’s the champ and he’s gonna try to finish me the same way.”
On interviews (2005)
“I don’t mind interviews. We need it for the sport to be bigger and that’s why we can get paid well. I get paid decent to do what I do, and it allows me to keep this as my only job – to fight and train. So I can’t really complain about doing interviews and doing the other stuff. There are pluses and minuses to people knowing who you are and doing interviews and stuff, so you’ve got to take both of them I guess.”
On his children’s reaction to his success (2005)
“Ever since they’ve been little they’ve seen me on TV and seen me fight, so they don’t think much of it. Some of their friends do, and think its cool, but they don’t. They just kind of laugh.”
On the allure of MMA (2005)
“This sport puts together a lot of things that I like doing in one sport. I always liked fighting, I always liked wrestling, and when I started doing this sport jiu-jitsu was a new thing for me. I had been doing martial arts since I was a kid but jiu-jitsu was new to me. It is a sport where I can put all that together and compete with other people and I can go out there and try to prove who’s best.”
On his reason for fighting (2006)
“I love fighting and I’ll never get burned out on that. Sometimes the business side of it gets to you a little bit, but I can’t complain about that right now either. I get paid to do what I love for a living, so it’s kinda hard to get burned out on that.”
On adjusting to fame (2006)
“It’s been a hard adjustment, especially this year because it got a little crazy as far as how many people know who you are. It’s more than I expected. A lot of people knew who I was at a lot of the places I went, but now it’s just different people. Before, you could almost tell which guys are fight fans, and they would know who I was. Now I can’t. You’ll get some old guy talking in the mall, ‘hey, good luck next week.’ And I’m looking around. ‘What? Oh, okay, thanks.’ (Laughs)”
On the bond of loyalty between him and trainer John Hackleman (2006)
“That’s just the way I am, and everybody who knows me knows that. And it also comes from the fact that John’s a great coach. He sticks with me and I stick with him. We work together well, and over at The Pit, we’re more of a family than anything else.”
On his continued quest to get better (2006)
“If you’re not learning in this sport, you’re dying. You’ve got to keep evolving with the sport. It’s evolving quickly and there’s always so many ways you can lose a fight or win a fight, and so many ways a guy can come at you that you have to keep learning all the time.”
On his appeal to his peers (2006)
“I think the reason people like me is because I’ll fight anybody, anywhere, I don’t talk bad about people that don’t deserve it, and I’m not a guy who’s out there trying to trash talk and make a name for myself. I earned the name that I have – I went out and fought for it. I’m not trying to make it off somebody else. And I go out there, I fight hard, and I fight to win. I think other fighters have respect for that because that’s what they’re doing.”
On the mental side of MMA (2006)
“The mental game is as important, if not more important, than the physical game. If you lose, you pick yourself up and get ready for the next fight. You don’t let it get to you. I think that’s the biggest thing. When the obstacles get in your way, it’s how you react to them and how you get by them.”
On staying grounded (2006)
I’ve got a lot of friends that I’ve hung out with for 10-15 years that still hang out with me, and I don’t think they’d let me start acting like a jerk. They knew me when I was the guy going to college and working behind the bar. Plus I still live in the same small town, and things like that (celebrity) aren’t really that big a deal around here. I think I’m a normal guy, and I try to be as normal as I can.”
On how he’d like to be remembered (2006)
“As a fighter. I love to fight, I love the fight game, and I went out there and performed.”
This Saturday, Liddell puts his UFC light heavyweight crown on the line for the fifth time against the last man to beat him, the aforementioned Jackson, and in this compilation of quotes from this reporter’s interviews with Liddell from over the last few years, you get a sense of not only where the champion has been, but where he’s at in the world’s fastest growing sport.
On growing up in California and his first introduction to fighting (2003)
“I actually got lucky because a lot of my friends got in trouble. I never actually got in that much trouble fighting, and I fought quite a bit growing up. Other than that I was a pretty good kid. I got good grades in school, but I got in quite a few fights here and there. I always liked the competition of fighting.”
On telling his family that he was going to put his Accounting degree aside to become a pro fighter (2003)
“My mom was behind me and my grandpa was behind me. My grandma was the only one who was like, ‘You’ve got your degree, why don’t you go get a real job?’ It worked out for me I think.”
On his greatest influences (2003)
“My grandpa was my greatest influence and so was my mom. They always supported me, no matter what I did. My grandpa told me that I could beat anybody in the world back when I started kickboxing. I wish he were here to see me now. He believed I could beat anybody back then.”
On the state of MMA in 2003 (2003)
“I’m hoping it gets bigger and bigger. I think it’s grown a lot in the last couple of years. It got more exposure and hopefully it will get more and more coverage from the mainstream media.”
On winning the UFC belt, before his first fight with Randy Couture (2003)
“Everyone talks about the belt, and for a lot of my friends and fans, I’d like to get that belt. But for me, I just want to beat people. I want to beat the best guys in the world. That’s all that matters to me.”
On his fight with Kevin Randleman, which he won in the first round (2003)
“That’s one of the first fights I had where even a lot of my friends were worried.”
On his trademark post-fight yell (2003)
“I’m just excited. I don’t get very excited very often about too many things, but that’s one of the things I do. I prepare for two to three months for a guy, and you end it quickly like that or you have a good fight and you win, I’m excited.”
On where his competitive nature comes from (2003)
“I couldn’t tell you. From chess to checkers when I was a kid, I’ve always been competitive. I hate to lose. I hate to lose at anything. I’ve gotten a lot better about mellowing out about fun games, but there was a time when I’d get pissed about everything. Whether it was shooting pool or anything, I just hated losing. I’ve kind of moved that focus and tried to keep it to my professional life.”
On his rematch with Couture (2005)
“We’re both professionals. I’m a competitor, I hate losing and I hate that I lost to him. I want to avenge that loss – I’ve wanted to for two years now. He’s a competitor and he wants to beat me again, but I don’t think he can beat me again. We’re both going to go out there and try to beat each other every time we go out. It’s not a big deal that we don’t have any animosity – I don’t need that to beat a guy in the ring.”
On fighting someone he likes (2005)
“When I’m out there I have no remorse. I won’t hold back at all. If I’ve got him hurt, I’m gonna try to hurt him. Of course as soon as the fight’s over I hope he’s okay. But I’m sure he’s the same way; he’s the champ and he’s gonna try to finish me the same way.”
On interviews (2005)
“I don’t mind interviews. We need it for the sport to be bigger and that’s why we can get paid well. I get paid decent to do what I do, and it allows me to keep this as my only job – to fight and train. So I can’t really complain about doing interviews and doing the other stuff. There are pluses and minuses to people knowing who you are and doing interviews and stuff, so you’ve got to take both of them I guess.”
On his children’s reaction to his success (2005)
“Ever since they’ve been little they’ve seen me on TV and seen me fight, so they don’t think much of it. Some of their friends do, and think its cool, but they don’t. They just kind of laugh.”
On the allure of MMA (2005)
“This sport puts together a lot of things that I like doing in one sport. I always liked fighting, I always liked wrestling, and when I started doing this sport jiu-jitsu was a new thing for me. I had been doing martial arts since I was a kid but jiu-jitsu was new to me. It is a sport where I can put all that together and compete with other people and I can go out there and try to prove who’s best.”
On his reason for fighting (2006)
“I love fighting and I’ll never get burned out on that. Sometimes the business side of it gets to you a little bit, but I can’t complain about that right now either. I get paid to do what I love for a living, so it’s kinda hard to get burned out on that.”
On adjusting to fame (2006)
“It’s been a hard adjustment, especially this year because it got a little crazy as far as how many people know who you are. It’s more than I expected. A lot of people knew who I was at a lot of the places I went, but now it’s just different people. Before, you could almost tell which guys are fight fans, and they would know who I was. Now I can’t. You’ll get some old guy talking in the mall, ‘hey, good luck next week.’ And I’m looking around. ‘What? Oh, okay, thanks.’ (Laughs)”
On the bond of loyalty between him and trainer John Hackleman (2006)
“That’s just the way I am, and everybody who knows me knows that. And it also comes from the fact that John’s a great coach. He sticks with me and I stick with him. We work together well, and over at The Pit, we’re more of a family than anything else.”
On his continued quest to get better (2006)
“If you’re not learning in this sport, you’re dying. You’ve got to keep evolving with the sport. It’s evolving quickly and there’s always so many ways you can lose a fight or win a fight, and so many ways a guy can come at you that you have to keep learning all the time.”
On his appeal to his peers (2006)
“I think the reason people like me is because I’ll fight anybody, anywhere, I don’t talk bad about people that don’t deserve it, and I’m not a guy who’s out there trying to trash talk and make a name for myself. I earned the name that I have – I went out and fought for it. I’m not trying to make it off somebody else. And I go out there, I fight hard, and I fight to win. I think other fighters have respect for that because that’s what they’re doing.”
On the mental side of MMA (2006)
“The mental game is as important, if not more important, than the physical game. If you lose, you pick yourself up and get ready for the next fight. You don’t let it get to you. I think that’s the biggest thing. When the obstacles get in your way, it’s how you react to them and how you get by them.”
On staying grounded (2006)
I’ve got a lot of friends that I’ve hung out with for 10-15 years that still hang out with me, and I don’t think they’d let me start acting like a jerk. They knew me when I was the guy going to college and working behind the bar. Plus I still live in the same small town, and things like that (celebrity) aren’t really that big a deal around here. I think I’m a normal guy, and I try to be as normal as I can.”
On how he’d like to be remembered (2006)
“As a fighter. I love to fight, I love the fight game, and I went out there and performed.”
