Silva entered the Octagon first to a loud ovation from the crowd in attendance. "I'm going to go, go, and go, and not stop." "If I catch him with something and hurt him a little bit, I'll finish him." "I'm not going to give him the opportunity," Silva responded.
"I want to be the number one guy in the world again," Liddell said in the pre-fight video package. Although neither of them held a title when they finally met, the show they put on was one of the best of the year, and lived up to years of hype. He started off as a wrestler-based fighter but his striking is now equal to his grappling.Prior to their long-overdue meeting in December of 2007, Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva were the most devastating fighters in their respective 205 pound divisions over the previous three years, with Liddell defending the UFC's Light Heavyweight Championship and Silva defending his Pride Middleweight (205 lbs.) Championship. “He’ll slam you on your head or punch you in the face. “He’s a bundle of dynamic, explosive, in-your-face energy,” Hackleman said of the 135-pound Banuelos, who’s won four of his last five fights.
Topping a long list of local MMA fighters looking to carry on Liddell’s winning ways is Antonio Banuelos, a World Extreme Cagefighting veteran making his UFC debut on Feb. Looking to fill those shoes is an array of talented up-and-comers. They are very lucky to have him as a mentor, but they have pretty big shoes to fill.” So imagine how the guys he trains with and goes out to dinner with feel about his retirement.
“Every fighter around the world who has ever put gloves on looks up to Chuck. He gave pride and bragging rights to the Central Coast, SLO, Arroyo Grande, and Cal Poly,” said John Hackleman, Liddell’s longtime trainer. “The most famous fighter of all time is right in our backyard. Liddell, a former Cal Poly wrestler and a recent Ultimate Fighting Championship Hall of Fame inductee, is widely credited for bringing MMA into the American mainstream and is commonly considered the Central Coast’s most famous athlete (with all due respect to fitness guru Jack LaLanne of Morro Bay, University of Oregon distance runner Jordan Hasay of Arroyo Grande, and Cal Poly athlete and National Football League linebacker Chris Gocong). W ith the recent retirement of legendary mixed martial artist Chuck Liddell, many aspiring local fighters are trying to fill the void the “Iceman” left when his storied career came to an end and he hung up his four-ounce gloves for good.
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