"Chuck can do whatever wants to do. It’s disappointing. He lost to a great champion and that’s no reason to retire ... 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. A lot of people thought Randy Couture was done at heavyweight and he went to Light Heavyweight and won a title. 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. I don’t think Chuck cares about his fights. He wanted to fight Tito because he didn’t like him and for some reason he wanted to beat Vernon White ... 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."
-- Long-time trainer of Chuck Liddell, John Hackleman, talks to Throw Them Bows about "The Iceman" -- not UFC President Dana White -- making the decision to retire from mixed martial arts competition. There may be a fighting fire that still burns inside the 39-year-old UFC legend despite his recent struggles inside the Octagon. We already know that Dana White made the decision for him to retire after the first round technical knockout loss to Mauricio "Shogun" this weekend at UFC 97: "Redemption. " It should be interesting to see if and when Chuck does make a decision whether or not it drives a wedge between him and White … especially if he wants to stick around and, at the very least, finish the last fight on his current deal and attempt to go out with his hand raised rather than flattened on the canvas.
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