Silva vs Liddell at UFC 79: Nemesis
by Robert Sargent
After more than six years of waiting, MMA fans will finally get to see the long-awaited fight between Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell (20-5-0) and "The Axe Murderer" Wanderlei Silva (31-7-1, 1 NC). The fight has been confirmed by the UFC and will take place at UFC 79: Nemesis on December 29th.
For years, dating back to PRIDE 17 when Wanderlei Silva destroyed Kazushi Sakuraba for the second time and became the PRIDE Middleweight (205 pounds) Champion, MMA fans have been looking forward to a dream match between the most dominant 205-pound fighter in PRIDE's history, Silva, and the most dominant 205-pound fighter in the UFC's history, Liddell.
The fight was supposed to happen in the finals of the 2003 PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix, but those plans came to a crashing halt when Liddell was defeated in the semi-finals by Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, who, in turn, was defeated by Silva later in the same evening, making Silva the 2003 PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix Champion.
Years passed and little was said about the fight, until UFC 61, when UFC president Dana White announced that Liddell and Silva would finally face each other in November of 2006, as long as Liddell defeated Renato "Babalu" Sobral at UFC 62, which he did do.
However, with PRIDE Heavyweight Champion Fedor Emelianenko injured and unable to compete, there was an opening in the 2006 PRIDE Grand Prix Absolute (open-weight tournament, open to anyone) tournament, which Silva filled. After defeating Kazuyuki Fujita at Critical Countdown Absolute, Silva was matched against Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipović at Final Conflict Absolute on November 10th, 2006. Silva was knocked out by a left head kick, putting the fight with Liddell on hold, once again.
With Silva now out of competition, Liddell faced his other bitter rival, Tito Ortiz, at UFC 66 on December 30th. Liddell won the fight, solidifying his position as the top 205-pound fighter in the UFC at the time.
On February 24th, 2007, Wanderlei Silva fought Dan Henderson in Las Vegas at PRIDE 33 in a PRIDE Middleweight title fight. Henderson survived an early scare and knocked out Silva in the third round with a left hook. With Silva having lost two fights in a row - for the first time in his career - the dream match against Liddell seemed to be dead and buried.
However, after defeating Marvin Eastman at UFC 67, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson - the main who had defeated Liddell in 2003 - was awarded a UFC Light Heavyweight title shot against Liddell at UFC 71. Jackson knocked out Liddell early in the first round, capturing the title and, in the process, inadvertently re-igniting the near-forgotten dream of Liddell fighting Silva.
Once again, the fight was supposed to happen, this time at UFC 76, but Silva was moving from Brazil to the United States, and would not have time to train at all for the fight, so the superfight was once again postponed. After postings on UFC's website from Dana White and Chuck Liddell insinuated that Silva did not want to fight Liddell, Silva publicly reaffirmed that he wished to face Liddell later in the year.
In the meantime, Silva officially signed with the UFC on August 17th. It was announced that his first fight would be at UFC 79 later in the year.
Liddell, meanwhile, was matched against Keith Jardine at UFC 76. Despite opening up multiple cuts on Jardine's face in the first round, Liddell was soundly defeated after being knocked down in the second round and being out-struck in the third. After the decision was read, and Liddell was declared the loser, Silva, who was watching the fight from cageside, was visibly distraught, as the fight with Liddell once again seemed to be done for.
However, despite Liddell's loss to Jardine, both fighters are actually equal, in that both are coming off of the first back-to-back losses of their careers, and the fight between the two still makes sense.
Rather than being a contest of UFC Light Heavyweight Champion vs PRIDE Middleweight Champion, what the fans now get is a battle of the most dominant (and famous) 205-pound fighter in UFC history and the most dominant (and famous) 205-pound fighter in PRIDE history.
With a UFC Welterweight title fight between champion Matt Serra and challenger Matt Hughes also on the UFC 79 card, the moniker for the event - "Nemesis" - is a fitting one, to say the least.
