After teasing a potential comeback for years, the UFC Hall of Famer and former light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell announced on The MMA Hour that he is officially coming out of retirement. The 48-year-old Liddell is angling for a third fight against rival Tito Ortiz and is hopeful a deal gets done with Oscar de la Hoya to promote the contest under Golden Boy’s much-discussed potential move into the MMA space.
“I will fight again,” Liddell declared.
“It’s a real thing. They’re working on it.”
Liddell said a deal has yet to be finalized with Golden Boy but plans are for the fight to go down in November in either Las Vegas or California. He also vowed that he is serious about his comeback and is set on returning to the cage with or without Ortiz.
“It does not hinge on Tito’s participation,” Liddell said.
“I miss it. I never stopped missing it. And I kinda hadn’t really thought about it much. And then when he brought it up and we started getting going, and I started training and I started doing stuff again, getting ready to try to take this on, it made me go, ‘You know what, what if he pulls out? Am I not going to fight? Am I going to do all of this and not fight?’ Oh no, we had to have somebody backing up, and if it doesn’t work out with him, I’m [still] going to give it a shot. It’ll be somebody else, one of the guys from my past probably, most likely, and we’ll see where I’m at.”
Liddell retired inside the octagon in 2010. The MMA legend is not worried about the opinions of his old friend and former boss.
“With all due respect, yeah, leave it alone. Leave me alone,” Liddell said.
“You promised something to me for a long time and it’s gone. But it’s not even that. I want to fight. I miss everything. Everyone always asks me, ‘Hey man, this must be a lot better than fighting?’ No, no, I still — that was my favorite thing. My wife asks me, ‘How do you like doing that?’ My wife asks me that all the time. I still miss it. I miss everything. I miss cutting weight. I miss everything that goes with it, everything, the good, the bad. It’s all of it. I mean, I miss hanging out the gym, going and working out every day. It’s fun to me.
“It’s [White’s] opinion. It’s how he feels, and that’s okay with me. You’re entitled to your opinion and what you think. Everybody’s entitled to their opinion. If I can’t fight, if I don’t feel like I can perform or go out there and perform, I wouldn’t. But I feel like I can still perform, especially enough to beat Tito, so I’ll be ready.”