Wanderlei Silva open to Chuck Liddell rematch: ‘We made the best fight of the year’

Although Wanderlei Silva will have his hands full with Chael Sonnen on June 24 at Bellator 180 in New York City, “The Axe Murderer” is still thinking into the future. Silva recently opened up in an interview with MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani, stating that he’d “love” to rematch UFC legend Chuck Liddell.

"This is gonna be great,” said Silva. "I think some guys stop too early, like Chuck. Chuck is a really good guy, a good fighter, a tough guy. I would love to (watch) Chuck fighting again. And maybe I can have a rematch. We made the best fight of the year. I want to have my chance to give (him) what he gave to me, too. But now is a different time.”

Luckily for Silva, Liddell is on the prowl and looking for a reason to come out of retirement. The two originally met at UFC 79, in which “The Iceman” defeated the Brazilian in a 2007 Fight of the Year performance, and could certainly reproduce fireworks in a potential reboot.

"For my fight with him I (didn’t) have corner, I just moved to America,” explained Silva. "I had a lot of things behind the scenes. He (fought) good, but this moment I think it can be different.

"I left Chute Boxe, and I (got) one guy from jiu-jitsu (Andre Galvao), one guy from boxing (Ulysses Pereira), one guy for physical training (Rafael Alejarra), and put these guys in my corner to teach me. I never fight like that. I had the same corner all my life, and that moment I changed. But right now I have my old guys again. I would love to have rematch against Chuck."

If Liddell does happen to pull himself out of retirement and jump back into the combat kitchen, maybe Bellator can cook something up and get these two legends back into the cage one more time. Until then, Silva will have to deal with Sonnen at Bellator 180.