After the fight, Liddell stated that he wanted his next fight to be for the light-heavyweight title. Earlier that night, Liddell defeated Renato Sobral by KO (head kick) in the first round. Ortiz dominated Shamrock with multiple strikes and takedowns and won the bout by TKO (corner stoppage) at 5:00 of the third round. Ortiz and Shamrock finally met in November at UFC 40. While it was expected that Liddell would face Tito Ortiz (his friend and former training partner) for the title, Ortiz expressed desire for a grudge match against mixed martial arts pioneer Ken Shamrock. Meanwhile, Chuck Liddell was scheduled to fight Brazilian boxer Vitor Belfort at UFC 37.5 in June in Las Vegas to determine the number one contender for the UFC light-heavyweight championship. Following the event, Barnett tested positive for steroids in a post-fight drug test and was stripped of the title and suspended by the Nevada Athletic Commission. Couture was controlling the majority of the fight until Barnett took his back and delivered a series of unanswered strikes to the head before the referee stopped the bout at 4:35 of the second round. Randy Couture was the defending UFC heavyweight champion and was making his third title defense against grappling standout Josh Barnett. The origins of the trilogy go back to UFC 36 on March 22, 2002, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Going on a 9 fight win streak before the fight with Couture, Liddell had 11 victories with only one loss to submission specialist Jeremy Horn. Couture had developed a feared reputation as a wrestler who could strike. Liddell was a rising light heavyweight contender before the first fight. Couture moved down to light heavyweight after two consecutive losses against larger grapplers Josh Barnett, and Ricco Rodriguez, both with the heavyweight title at stake. Background īefore the first meeting between the two, Randy Couture fought at heavyweight and was heavyweight champion twice before the first match-up.

At the third and final match-up Liddell once again won, making it 2–1 for himself, by KO at 1:28 in the second round.

The second time, after The Ultimate Fighter 1, at UFC 52, Liddell won by knockout at 2:06 in the very first round. By this victory he won the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship. All three fights have ended in knockout and have been for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship.Īt the first meeting at UFC 43, Couture won by technical knockout at 2:40 in the third round. All three fights took place under Ultimate Fighting Championship in the United States. Chuck 'The Iceman' Liddell is a mixed martial arts trilogy. JSTOR ( June 2022) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message).Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.įind sources: 'Randy Couture vs. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This article needs additional citations for verification.

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