Chuck Liddell

The UFC’s Heavy Hitter Weighs
in on His
Favorite Ranges, Techniques and Strategies for Winning

Interview by Robert W. Young
Photography by Rick Hustead

In the minds of many traditionalists, the mixed-martial arts genre has produced two standout stars: Maurice Smith, the kickboxer who knocked out Brazilian-jujutsu expert Marcus “Conan” Silveira with a couple of kicks to the noggin, and Chuck Liddell, the karate and kempo stylist who has stood toe-to-toe with the MMA world’s toughest fighters and dropped the majority of them with kicks and punches that could have been drawn from the arsenal of any traditional practitioner. In this exclusive Black Belt interview, Liddell, fresh from his light-heavyweight victory over Tito Ortiz in the Ultimate Fighting Championship 47, talks about the lessons he’s learned from his years in the striking arts, as well as the best ways you can avoid reinventing the wheel and learn the lessons of the Chuck Liddell School of Hard Knocks. —Editor

Black Belt: What’s your martial arts ackground? Everyone knows you trained in kempo. Was it your first art?

Chuck Liddell: The first was koie-kan karate, which I started when I was 12. When I went to school, I was still doing that at the martial arts club. I went to kempo in 1993. And I’ve been wrestling since I was 14.

BB: What did karate, kempo and wrestling bring to your mixed-martial arts skill set?

Liddell: Wrestling gave me better balance, mobility and positioning. Karate gave me a strong background in striking. Kempo gave me my hands and my kicks. I’ve always had hard kicks—even when I started kickboxing, I was 20-2 with 16 knockouts, eight of which were by kicks.

BB: In the ring, do you favor high kicks or low kicks?

Liddell: I like to mix them up. And I’ve always liked to throw head kicks. They work, and they’re definitely a crowd-pleaser.

BB: What skills did you not learn from the traditional arts that you later determined were essential in the MMA ring?

Liddell: I found I was limited in techniques for the ground. I knew I needed more, so I started Brazilian jujutsu with John Lewis, a Las Vegas-based trainer who used to study with Gene LeBell.

 The overhand right: Chuck Liddell (right) faces Tony Diaz (1). When the time is right, Liddell uncorks the punch (2), which travels above the opponent’s guard and lands on his jaw (3).

BB: Did you train with any other big-name grapplers?

Liddell: I did a class with Bas Rutten and Marco Ruas—I did a lot of things when I was starting out. I was smart enough to know that I needed to learn [ground] skills—or at least how to stay out of them.

BB: What makes Brazilian jujutsu so indispensable for MMA fighters?

Liddell: If you don’t know it, sooner or later you’ll get caught.

BB: You used to work as a bartender and a bouncer, and now you’re an MMA champion. How close is what you do in the octagon to real self-defense in a club?

Liddell: MMA is the safest way you can practice your skills without getting in a real fight. It’s the best way to simulate using techniques that could inflict permanent damage in a less controlled environment.

BB: Some fighters like to charge in and go for their favorite move. Others like to wait for their opponent to leave an opening they can exploit. What about you? Do you have an overall fight strategy?

Liddell: Everybody has a game plan going into a fight—what things you want to do and what you think you can do.

BB: Does the plan stay the same from opponent to opponent?

Liddell: It depends on the person you’re fighting. They all have similarities, but you have to match your style against his. Against a guy who’s not so good, I’ll counterfight. Other guys are hard to stop if you do it that way.

BB: How do you deal with a long-range fighter, one who likes to stay on the outside and use kicks when the gap is being closed?

Liddell: I deal with that [situation] well. I like being at a distance. It gives me more time to strike and more time to react. In wrestling, you learn not to shoot unless you can touch your opponent. So when you’re out of his range, there’s not as much he can do to you.

Although he isn’t crazy about knee thrusts,
Chuck Liddell (left) recognizes
their usefulness in the clinch.

Liddell: Not necessarily. I like to stay on the end of my punches. If you watch my last fight with Tito [Ortiz], one of the things I didn’t do is what a lot of people d They get his back to the cage where he’s covering, then choke themselves up and get too close. Then he body-locks them and takes them down. But I stayed far enough away to stay at the end of my punches.

BB: What techniques do you prefer to use in that range?

Liddell: I like to mix them all together. I watched Roy Jones Jr. a while ago talking about combinations. He said he’ll throw 15 or 20 punches, and his opponent has to try to block all of them because he doesn’t know which one is going to be the powerful one.

BB: Are you a believer in the big four punches: the jab, cross, hook and uppercut?

Liddell: Yeah, basically. That’s boxing. But there are some extra ones, too. The overhand right is good to use every once in a while because you can catch people with it.

BB: Do any other traditional martial arts strikes get used in the octagon?

Liddell: You see the hammerfist a lot and some spinning punches and kicks.

BB: Speaking of kicks, which ones do you find best-suited for use in MMA competition?

Liddell: I like the roundhouse to the head … and the leg kick and whip kick.

BB: What do you mean by whip kick?

Liddell: It snaps. I usually make it look like a roundhouse is coming down to his leg, then I change directions and put it up to his head—boom.

BB: How do you deal with a kicker?

Liddell: Grab him.

BB: Move in and grab him?

Liddell: Stand and grab him.

Kick catch with ground and pound: The opponent (left) sizes up Chuck Liddell (1), then unleashes a low roundhouse, which Liddell traps (2). The mixed-martial arts champ scoots forward (3) and sweeps the opponent to the ground (4). He then drops and begins a barrage of strikes (5).

BB: So even with your background in the striking arts, you would never try to out-kick a kicker? You would always try to do something he’s not doing?

Liddell: It depends on who he is. If he has no ground and I do, then I’ll [take him down]. Even if I know I’m a better striker than he is, if I know I’m a lot better on the ground, why stand up and smack? One punch can change the fight.

BB: What about in the middle range? What do you generally do there?

Liddell: I like elbows. When you land a clean one, it’s a hard shot. The only thing I don’t like about using them is you can cut your opponent really deep, and that can mean the fight gets stopped for the wrong reason. Knees I throw pretty much to the body, but I’ve never been a big kneer. Because I like to try to keep my space, I do a lot of circling and pivoting.

BB: Once you and your opponent hit the mat, what’s your goal? Submission techniques, punches…?

Takedown with heel hook: Chuck Liddell (right) and his opponent square off (1). When the opponent throws a right cross, Liddell ducks (2), then shoots in and takes him down (3). Maintaining control of the man’s left leg (4), Liddell drops to the mat (5) before torquing his heel for a submission (6).

Liddell: Mostly striking. Don’t get me wrong: If the other guy gives it to me, I’ll take a submission. But I’m not going to go out of my way to force it, and I’m not going to risk being in a [bad] position to force it. Remember that to get position on the ground, you need technique. [If you know positioning,] it doesn’t matter where you start hitting—you’ll end up being in the dominant position. I’m looking to get my opponent in a dominant position where I can pound on him better and hurt him.

BB: When it comes to finishing techniques, which do you favor?

Liddell: I like chokes and armbars mainly; I always have. One thing about leg locks I don’t like is my legs are going to be as exposed as yours, basically. You have as good a shot at finishing me as I have at finishing you. Another thing is, if you’re not careful with them in training, it’s easy to get hurt. If you don’t understand them, [a lock will feel uncomfortable] and then pop in no time at all. A big challenge is how to make sparring as realistic as possible without getting hurt all the time. It’s a juggling act.

BB: Are there any parts of the traditional martial arts that you just have no use for in competition—either because the rules don’t allow them or because they don’t work? For instance, some people say judo is a great art for the ground but in an MMA match, the throwing doesn’t work the way it does in a judo match.

Liddell: Those throws do work, but you’ve got to get your opponent to push on you more. And when you don’t have his gi to grab, it’s really hard to force a throw.

BB: When you’re out there striking, are you looking just to unload on your opponent—no matter where you hit him, it’s OK—or are you looking to hit a precise target?

Liddell: I don’t really shoot for precise targets; I shoot for bigger targets. With punches, I like to aim for the chin. With kicks, I like to go for the legs. Against a wrestler, I’ll go for the high stuff, too. I always want to try to hurt the guy.

About the author: Robert W. Young is the executive editor of Black Belt. For more information about Chuck Liddell, visit http://www.chuckliddell.com. To read his comments about his Tito Ortiz fight, call (201) 559-0091 and ask for the July 2004 issue of Black Belt.