Insight with Chris Van Vliet - UFC Hall of Famer Chuck Liddell: Unlocking your potential, building self-confidence & finding your passion

Episode Date: June 29, 2021

Chuck Liddell is a retired mixed martial arts fighter and a member of the UFC Hall of Fame. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet inside his home in Los Angeles, CA to talk about his legendary UFC career, his podcast called "Icebreakers" with comedian Adam Ray, his fights with Tito Ortiz, Randy Couture, Kevin Randleman, and others, what it feels like to knock someone out and how it feels when you get knocked out, the career path he was on if he didn't become a fighter and much more! Submit your Blue Wire Hustle application here: http://bwhustle.com/join If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests. For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://chrisvanvliet.com Follow CVV on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All right, my friends, here we go. And welcome back to another audio adventure here on Insight. I'm Chris Van Blee. Thank you so much for coming back each and every episode. And I'm just so pumped up about this one today. Not only because it's with a UFC Hall of Famer and an absolute legend in the sport, but because we got to sit down with Chuck Lidale

at his house to do this interview in person. And I'm sure you're well aware of who Chuck Ladell is from some of his legendary fights over the years with Tito Ortiz, Randy Couture, Kevin Randleman, so many others, but you might not know that he also does a podcast now as well. You can check out Ice Breakers,

which he co-hosts with comedian Adam Ray, wherever you're listening to this right now. So make sure to subscribe to Ice Breakers. And if you haven't yet, make sure to subscribe to Insight as well. And you guys know, we talked about it for a while. The goal was to hit 2,000 reviews for the podcast. Before my birthday, which was last month, May 19,

we were reading one review on every single episode as a way to say, thank you for being on this journey with us. We stopped once we hit 2000, but a lot of you reached out and said, why just stop? I want to hear my review on the show. I want to get that free shout out. So with that said, the reviews, oh, they're back, baby.

So I'll be reading one review on every single episode. It's just a small token of my appreciation for you. if you happen to be listening on Apple Podcasts, which is the only podcast platform that allows for reviews, if you are listening on Apple Podcasts and you haven't left your review yet, take a second right now to click those five stars, say a few words, and we'll read them out. Like this one from M. Chow One, who says, CVV is the man. Chris's show is the show. I love his interview style. He always seems to be in a good mood and always seems to be very positive with his guests. I'm glad he switched up his show to include non-wrestling guests,

and I look forward to seeing what he does next. Keep up the great work, Chris. Well, thank you so kindly, and this is one of those many non-wrestling guests. I want to make it clear that while I am a wrestling fan, I am not a wrestling podcaster. And that is nothing against wrestling podcasts or wrestling podcasters, but I am simply just a podcaster.

I am simply just a broadcaster and not just a wrestling podcaster or a wrestling broadcaster. I want to talk to interesting people. That's the whole point of the show. It's why it's called Insight. I want to be able to take the insights of people who are at the very top of their game.

And when you talk about people who are at the top of their game, I mean, this man is a trailblazer in the sports. So let's get right into this one. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the Iceman. Chuck Liddell. Thank you so much for invite us into your home.

Oh, thanks for coming. This makes it a lot easier. But there's also no better way to have a conversation than this. Yeah. In person. This is always good. I've always been that way, though. Even before all this, like, Zoom and I like, I'm like, I do a radio interviews and like,

oh, you don't have to go in. You can just call in. I'm like, I'm here. Like, I'll come in. Which I think works out better for everybody. Because, I mean, you go in, especially if you've never worked with somebody. You go in and you're going on a radio interview, right? Yeah.

And you get in there and it's just cold from the first thing you do is you start talking to a guy. Yeah. I mean, and I go over the day when people had no idea what UFC was. Sure. These guys have no chance to get any kind of rapport with them. You have no, they don't know anything about your sport. And you're like, and you're trying to have a conversation and make it interesting, right? Yeah.

And promote something while you're in a short period of time. Yeah. So, you know, I always felt there was always. better to get there early, talk to the guy, you know, when the guy's off from it, have a conversation before you actually decide to be on the radio for three minutes and try to promote something. But I think that says a lot about you because there's a lot of people that would go, no, I want to put in like the least amount of effort possible.

I'll just call in at 817. We'll make this thing happen. Well, yeah. But I mean, I don't want to be overworked, but I also, I think product over laziness, I guess. I'd rather have a good, like, I want to get out of here on time. I can tell the guys are doing things. I want to get out of time, but I want to make sure you got what you need. Yeah, right.

I'd rather have a good product. Yeah. We're done than have me get out of here an hour early. Yeah. You know, so. When did you become Chuck? I mean, your name is Charles, but when did you become Chuck? That's actually funny.

I, no one ever asked that. I actually didn't like the name Chuck. I bought it for years. My family called me Charlie. Like, I actually had in high school, I had buddies would call up. Hey, it's Chuck there. And my, this is back, you know, we had this phone. Sure.

So my grandma has the phone. Nope, no Chuck here. Am I, like, I'm like, oh, is Charlie there? And she, oh, yeah, he's right here. Oh, wow. Yeah. Like, it's like, it was not allowed. But, you know, eventually I just got used to it.

Now, now I tell him my name's Chuck. Does anyone call you Charlie now? My family still. My mom, my sister, my brother. Yeah. And then some friends from, Like, I, I've said this before in a couple of interviews a while ago, and now it changed it a little bit.

But I used to, if I heard someone yell Charlie when I'm walking through, because I walk through a crowd, I try not to look a lot if I'm trying to get somewhere fast. I just, too many else my name. I just keep going. You kind of stand out, yeah. You have to kind of stop me to get me to stop because otherwise, if I turn around and I go, come here, I'm like, okay, hey, I'm coming here. I'll take a picture.

So I'm trying to walk through, but I hear Charlie and you'll give me a, oh, I'm like, I'm thinking, oh, it's somebody from high school or someone from one of my family members or somebody. So, yeah, for the most part, yeah, everyone calls me Chuck now. Did you have a moment after you retired where you're like, you know what? I could grow my hair out now. I could live like, you know, everybody else now. You know, I never really, it was always that even when I retired, I started doing right away.

It was like I did a lot of appearances. And I've shown up a couple times that shaved or, you know, grown out. I grew up for a couple movies and stuff. And people like, oh, well, they kind of experience. you to show up in character for your appearance. Like even like shaving my face though. Actually my funniest story was I shaved my face. First time I

shaved my face after my daughter Gwen whenever I was born Um she was I mean she was three But she was horrified. I didn't tell her I was shaved I came down without it on It's like who's this man in my house? Put your lips back on. Daddy put your lips back

on. I'm like oh sorry This is Daddy. I'm okay. She was like, scared. I was like, oh, man. Like,

but yeah, I look so different without a face with hair. It's funny that you describe it as a character because, sure, it's a character, but it's so very much who you are.

Well, yeah, but it's like, you know, really a long time ago when I was kickboxing, um, this is a long story.

But anyway, I was going to go fight and strongbo, and, and, um, um, um,

um, the guy Eric Eric, I think he's Eric Nolan was his name was a guy that,

you know, used to run the, um, or run the fights. He was on the murder. I showed up and I fought and I got a knockout. Nice. And afterwards he goes,

man, you can't, who you can put the Mohawk back, bring the Mohawk back next time? I mean, you can't come here like that. Everyone's thinking you never showed up and fought. I'm getting people mad at me that you never came.

Oh, that's funny. I'm like, I'm like, oh, well, I had a court case that had to go to. I got,

there's a bar fight and I got I had to go to record and they said well can you can you can you shave your head and go shit you know can you can you can you go your hair out and shave your face your lawyer said this yeah so I I did that before the fight because I had I had to grow out my hair I so I grew my hair out of my hair out because I had I'd go to the court case the next week you want to look like a good guy they wanted me look well because yeah but I think I was a guy was a guy was throwing the guy out of bar I tried to throw I was picking him up carrying him out of the bar I tried to throw me and you know I tried to roll roll me through and I just and I just hip tossed him and he landed on his head. So, and when it was one of the things, it was one of the things, I actually, my lawyer got him real good because he was up, I didn't, we didn't know he did wrestle at, I said he, yeah, he obviously wrestled in high school, he just not as good as me because he tried to do like an arm spin thing.

And he just countered it. And he asked him on the stand. So, so how, you wrestled in high school, right? He's like, yeah, I was, yeah, I wrestled it all four years. And I'm like, yeah, so you knew, you know this, this movement. That's what you did. It was pretty funny. But it was easy to win that case.

Was there ever a point in your life when you were going to have a quote-unquote real job? Well, yeah. I mean, honestly, I went to school for accounting. I have a degree in accounting. I can't imagine you being an account. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, honestly, I started kickboxing when I was finished wrestling and I was finishing up school. Yeah.

And I decided I really want to do this. I was having a lot of fun, but I wasn't making any money. And right around 9097, I was, I was kind of, I went to John Hackleman, my trainer, and I'm like, you know what, man, I love, I'm having a great time. I'm part-tending and kickboxing. It was a blast. You're having a good time. I love, I love fighting. I love what I was doing, but I'm like, you know what? My family's giving me a lot of pressure to get a real job, go out there and you got an accounting degree, go out. I mean, my grandma wants to brag. I'm working for some big firm, you know.

And I'm like, you know, I told my, we're not, if we don't start making money soon, I really got to get a real job. I mean, I love this, but I can't just, I can't just do this. Yeah. And he's like, yeah, well, I don't know, you know, it's hard to make money kickboxing. And right after that, Nick Blomgren, the guy actually kind of really got me, started kickboxing. Comes and came, called me up and said, hey, Alfie says you're a pretty good wrestler. do you want to do a mixed fight and invite me.

I did this like open hand striking fight in Vegas, actually, at the Orleans. I think it was the first one of those ever. It was on a kickboxing car, but it was an extra fight on there. I went up kicking the guy in the head, knocking them out. And some guy from the stands comes up, and do you want to fight in the UFC? And now back then, I don't know. I don't know how to get in the UFC.

We are like, and we've been talking about me. My friends were like, man, you need to fight in UFC. I don't know if you know Lorenzo and Neo he's always come up to me He's like you need to fight in UFC You're a great fighter and you're a wrestler And you need to go fight in UFC Like I'll get you in there

How do we get in there? No new how. So yeah it's like I asked me You want to win and they offered me UFC 17 It'd be an alternate to a tournament For $1,000. A thousand dollars.

I was like okay and I was back in I was back in okay now I'm not going to get a real job I'm going to go back to fighting again Like it got me and I fell in love the sport and that just been doing it ever since. I think I think timing in life is everything though. And had you been coming up just five years before, you had to get that real job because UFC wouldn't have really been a thing.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. It would have just been, yeah, five years, it was just, you would have been just starting and it would have been anything. Yeah, it was, it was, I still think I would have found my way there somehow. I would have been, got the real job and then been doing it on the weekends. I always would have been doing martial arts and fighting of some sort.

Yeah. But, you know, it's just, you know, be in the right place or right time and being prepared when you're in the right place at the right time. Yeah. It's a big thing. You know, I got a lot of, I think some of the opportunities were lucky. Some of the opportunities were, hey, you got to, but you have to win. Yeah.

You know, I asked for some of the breaks. I mean, like, Randleman. Yeah. He came down from heavyweight, from the heavyweight. champion and he was going to fight. They offered me a different fight. I don't want that fight. Can I have Bramleman? I want him. Oh man. I, you know, I'm like, if you, if you beat him, you have to fight your friend Tito. I'm like, yeah, I want the title. He's, he's still got the title when I get there where he's, we're going to have to fight. Yeah. We ain't that close.

We weren't even close. I mean, we were training partners, really. And I didn't, I didn't, I didn't dislike the guy at the time, but, no. Are you still close now? No. I don't know. We never, we never, we know. We know that when we were never, I, he tried to build it up that we were really close friends because we, he didn't want to fight me. Because when we trained together, I beat the hell out. I beat him at wrestling. He's a style of restaurant I like to write. I just styles make fights in wrestling too.

Yeah. He's a wrestler. I like to wrestle. Um, he couldn't do anything to me on the ground. He couldn't stay on top of me on the ground and we're just doing ground stuff. He couldn't, couldn't, couldn't, he could start on top. He still couldn't stay there. And he definitely couldn't take me down when we're striking at all.

And I just dropped him with body shots all the time he hated it. But and then so when I came time to fight, he's like, I can't beat this guy. You know, I'm not going to fight this guy. So he created this storyline. As this whole storyline, I mean, if you, if you, if you looked at the whole storyline, if you, from the old day, he's like, if you listen to what he was saying, he basically took me out of the street, fed me, and taught me how to fight, and I turned on him. I guess, yeah, he used to sleep on my cow.

and my wife fed him. I'm like, that's because you're too cheap to get me a hotel room. I was your sparring partner. I came down to be a sparring partner as a favorite to you. And people ask me to do it. And I'm like, you know, I came to be, I came as a favor to you to be a sparring partner. And I stayed at your house as a favor to you so you didn't have to pay for me to get a hotel room. Yeah.

I'm like, how is that? And you didn't have a bedrock. So I slept on your couch. Yeah, that's me being. I mean, I had nothing to do. do with, you know, it's not like, and we, I mean, we trained together here and there, but and I, he's got some friends of his that became friends of mine that I, I, I'm still friends with today, but. But you're not friends with him anymore. I haven't been friends with him

a lot. But that's the other thing too. I think people get, get, get it next and they think, um, I'm, I hate him. Yeah. I got no will will towards him. Like, I, I, I, you're doing business watch yourself. Yeah. You know, but, you know, hey, more bad. I'm hoping he's happy. I hear he's a good father, which, I mean, that's a big thing for me. Sure.

If you take care of your kids, you're good for your kids, great. That's a great thing. You know, his girl, I like her. I mean, I knew her from the past, and she's a really, really nice person. She's always been cool to me. And I hope they're happy. Yeah, I just want to, I want nothing to do with them. Yeah.

You know, I don't want to do business with them. Sure. Definitely don't want to do any business with. But I mean, I don't like the guy, but it is what it is. Was he hard to work with behind the scenes as well? Like, you know, I do a business with it. Look, okay, yeah. He's not one of those guys.

Like, I'm like a jail sonnet. Yeah. Jail sonnet goes out. You know, we were doing, we were both going to be on the same show, but I, he was filming his episode. And I was in the same place. Yeah. I'm in the green room talking to his mom.

And so I'm a big fan of you. And we're talking. He's out there. And it was right around, uh, 2018 by itself. when I was fighting again. And he was out there and he talked trash out there out there about me. And he walked in the back and he was, all right, man, I teed it up if you want to do it, man. But how are you doing?

How are the kids? That's funny. That's a guy that's just doing it for business. Yeah. You know, Tito's not quite that way. Yeah, I got you. Obviously, the Tito fights were, you know, something that people will remember you for. But what was the fight before that that really put you on the map?

Well, I think what really launched things I mean, as far as people going, oh, well, this guy can really go. Yeah. Was I knocked Kevin Randleman and Guy Metzker out in the span of three weeks. And the way you knocked out Guy Metzker. Yeah. I mean, I knocked out right.

And I knocked out Randleman who just came down to light heavyweight. It was supposed to be the new dominant force in light heavyweight because he was a heavyweight champion. Yeah. Came down and I knocked him out in a minute 18. Yeah. Convin Leavook, boom, out. And then I went to, uh, went to pride three weeks later

and knocked out guy, it was a great, good fight got me. I think he won the first round. The second round, I knocked him out. I mean,

you slept. I slept. I slept. Yeah, that was one of the, one of the couple of fights when I actually got, got nervous in the corner

because he didn't move for a while. Yeah. Me ended up being fine, but I was like, you know, that's what I was, oh, oh, oh, no.

Yeah. What does it feel like? Do you know, do you know when you've landed that knockout punch? You can see him when they sleep like that. It's like I did one in the IFC where Steve Heath's hit with the right hand. He might have been going out with that. Like on the right kick right after.

I was way back. I'm bouncing off the cage. And he went straight down. And it was like, well, I was on. Like that went straight. I didn't even, I was walked over in the corner like, because he's going to be okay. Like, I hope he's okay. So that killer instinct turns off immediately?

Oh, immediately. Look, I am truly trying to kill you when I'm across me in the ring. That is my job. I'm going to try to hurt you. Within the rules, I'm going to try to do my best to kill you. But as soon as it's over, I hope you're all right. For me, it's a competition. And I'm not an emotional fire, so I'm not angry at you.

I'm really just trying to pick you apart and trying to. And when I see, when I see, you can, you can see in guys' eyes when they're hurt. You know, you can see kind of gloss over a little bit. You know, I get that, you know, that. like I'll get him. Yeah. But yeah, it's actually a funny thing when I saw Randleman run the way on the train to go back to fly back from the knockout guy at Metzger. Yeah.

And Kevin, I like Kevin. He's a good dude. I actually cornered him for one of his, where he knocked out Crowcock. But he looked at me and he's like, man, I was really bummed out. You knocked me out. But, man, he're pretty good. I'm like, okay, okay. Thanks, man.

Thanks, thanks, thanks, brother. On the flip side of it, when you've been knocked out, what's the least that you remember? Oh, I mean, the thing, like, like, what's his name? Yeah. Rich. Rich Franklin? Yeah. Rich's fight.

Like, I don't, after I took a shot, we had a headbutt, right? Headbut him. I don't remember anything after that. Wow. I put my head open. I don't remember anything after that. And you broke his arm in that fight. Yeah.

If I'd baited it six more seconds, it was over. Yeah. And, you know, I think if I hadn't had better him, I think it would have been over. Because if I saw that, I would have just, if I mean, if I hadn't kind of blacked out, like that way gone into fight or flight survival mode. And that's the thing with me.

When I went into survival mode, I just went after him. Yeah. You know, it's like, I went straight at him and he caught me coming in. But, I mean, if I, if I hadn't done that, I probably would have backed off and just kicked him in that. I would have just kept kicking him in that arm. So what's the next thing that you remember then in that fight? I remember being in the locker room.

No way. Yeah, I don't remember anything to hunger. Wow. Yeah, that was, that was, I want to, that was, I mean, or like, I think I might have remember. I remember getting waking up in the ring a little bit when they woke me up, but I just don't remember. I remember being in a locker room trying to figure out what, having people tell me what have you look up. That's why sometimes I don't understand why people,

they talk people after, and they go, they're like, and they're asking them, like, I just look at it. So what would happen when this happened when you got knocked out? And they're like looking up at the,

like trying to figure out like, oh, wait, oh, and I've seen guys go, I haven't got, didn't get knocked out. Actually, I look back at, like,

it's a long, an old story, but I got, I got now, you got a fight at a bar this big fight broke out of a bar and this guy hit my head brother in the back of the head grounded by the back I threw him out of the door and he went down the tumbling down the awkward I was coming after him so I'm gonna protect him my little

brother sure but even though my brother I was everyone last when I see my little brother he's like six four three hundred pounds but he still he was my baby brother he had a you know an art surgeon was eight and ever since then he was my baby brother you know I just you know we protected him no matter what you know why are you still protected her you're your enormous brother. But yeah, but I, so I, and I was chased out to the guy, and he went and he went to pull his gun. He had a gun, and he got about here,

and I kicked him in the head, knocked him out, when I was called out to get the gun, and the cops came up, pulled out, the tyrant up, I'm on, oh, not me, that's not my gun, not my gun. And I knew all the cops at the time. And they're like, that way, man, you want to press charges, this guy was going to pull a gun. I'm like, uh-uh, I'm going to pump on.

And the guy actually wound up, that internal affairs came up and asked, you know, like, or asked about the story from me, and they asked six different people got six different stories, right? Which is normal. Sure.

Because when everyone sees things different, but every one of them said he grabbed his gun. Some said he pointed at me, some said he didn't. Some people said he, you know, and he said it must have fell out. I never pulled it out.

And so he lost his job over that. And I've thought about, I've always thought about that, looking back, and oh, man, that really sucks because you know what, he didn't remember. Like, he probably, he probably lost that time because he was out out. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, I kicked him in the head. He was out. And, you know, he lost, he didn't lose, he lost, he was going to be disciplined anyway, but he lost his job. Yeah. I mean, it was scary. You know, I don't know. But I felt bad.

Looking back, I always think, man, because everyone asked that question, that's the first thing that comes on mind is that guy, poor guy lost it because I didn't, I mean, I told him, I don't want him to lose his job. It's like your fault. Well, he's not losing his job over you. It's because he's lying. He lied to us. Yeah.

But see, I don't think he did. He thought he really didn't lie to him. He just didn't know. And I, at the time, didn't know to tell him. Like, right now, someone said, I would let him know. You got to know, he got knocked out. So he probably doesn't remember the, it definitely doesn't remember the tense five seconds before. I mean, it was two seconds, seconds before he got kicked in the head.

I mean, I, you know, if he had to get him pointed out of me, I wouldn't have been kicking him in the head. Like, I was, I was running up on him. He's just trying to get it out. And I got it. Do you have moments in your life now where maybe being kicked in the head, punched in the head, knocked down is affecting you now? Not that I know of, no.

I guess I wouldn't know. But, you know, but I did go, I went down to Columbia and I got to bioaccelerator. Yeah. They do stem cells. They're doing everybody. They do a lot of the wrestlers we've talked to. Yeah. I do, I did both my shoulders and amazing results, by the way.

Yeah. They also did the one for your brain, I guess. Like, they have one for, they're doing for CT and stuff like that. And, I mean, I said, like I said, you know, I didn't notice, but my wife said she did. She's like, yeah, you're, she's paying more attention. Yeah, she probably noticed more than I do. Like, and, you know, I, I've been doing some stuff with brain training. And I, like, we did it in EEG, like, Brain Performance Center here.

in like Westlake I go too but they do it in an EEG my brain and I do have a lot I do have a lot of my I'm stuck in it's kind of I don't know how to explain exactly I'm stuck in like fight or fight most of the time

it's always my fight or fight things are firing all the time and I have like the different places that I'm not using it but they have they have a training method to help me get it back so I mean it makes sense I mean a lot of stuff and we'll see how it goes

I mean, I'm almost, I'm 16 sessions. And I had 20. They're supposed to, they're hoping to be back to normal. And we'll see. Is there anything on you right now that hurts? Like, as you walk around? Oh, you know, I had a partial knee replacement.

Not long ago. But honestly, it's better, like, my wife asked me after I got excited to get that and had a neck fused. Because back to a formal last fight, I probably should have my neck fuse. I was sliding and tapping my spine, so they had to fuse it. Because you lose your balance.

You don't have the balance. Like I close my eyes, I would have no balance. I couldn't pass a drunk test of my eyes closed before the surgery. But then I got surgery and everything, and that's all back to normal. Everything, all that doesn't hurt. Everything's good. My knee, she asked me two weeks after, I said, look, my knee feels better two weeks after, surgery and it did for

three years before. Gosh. I'm like, and really the motivation or even getting it was like, I mean, my son, I was running with my son. I was playing soccer with my son. He comes up to me afterwards. He's sick at a time.

It might have been five time. And he's like, Daddy, you don't have to play with us. You don't know how it because he's like, because I was limp after him. I'm like limping the whole way. And if it hurt. And I'm like, I'm like, oh man, I don't have to fix it. I don't want to fix it. And he's a man, you don't have to,

Dad, you don't have to do that. It's okay. I'm like, no, it's fine. Why, why should you like her? I'm like, oh, you know, I fought for a living. It's kind of just kind of wore out one of the, some of the house wore out one of my knees. Yeah.

And he goes, sit there, saying, Dad, I don't want to be a fighter. Like, um, did you just listen to me? Like, I told you that's why I'm limping. Not because, but, you know, It was a weird for me. It was kind of really.

Okay, we'll see. I'm going to teach him to fight. We'll see what happens. Well, I think he's got the right genes. Well, his mom's genetic freak. Well, and there you go. We've got a future light heavyweight champion in, what would this be? 15 years?

Yeah. 14 years? Yeah, he's a tough kid. Geez. You know, obviously, you've been a trailblazer in UFC. And I think there's a lot of people that can now follow in your foot. steps and go look at the career Chuck had in the octagon and look at what he's built afterwards. So I'm curious to know who was the person that you looked up to as you were coming

up? You know, in the fight game, I really didn't have one. You know, I really just kind of, we were all kind of just trying to figure out how to how to make this sport. You know, how to, anyway, I was trying to figure out how to train it. Yeah. work and how to grow it, you know, because it was like, back when we started before, before Dana and Lorenzo came in and, and turn it around, I mean,

a home run would probably be, you know, fighting three times a year and making 150 grand a year, you know, like that. Yeah. That's not much, there's not much retirement,

uh, retirement there. Yeah. You know, um, I think, I mean, I had over 150 grand sponsors my last,

my last fight. So, I mean, there was a big difference. Sure. After they took over and the ultimate fighter and everything. Were you able to maybe talk to some of your fellow fighters who were coming up at the same time and going,

oh, yeah, we're doing here. We collaborated with a lot of guys. I think there was a real tight community, you know, like a lot of guys like all the guys from the Militich team, you know, those guys like Matt Hughes and those guys. And I was real close with BJ Penn and his team. John Lewis out in Vegas But we all

We all hung out together It was kind of an interesting time Sure You know Because we were all You know There's five fights, big fights a year And all of all the teams

Like we all kind of hang out The same places And all the same You know Everyone's traded You know Look what they're doing Look what they're doing

It was one of those things too At the time If you're not evolving You're dying You know You're not Everything's passing you by So you had to keep evolving

And learning and doing that time, there was that drive for the guys that, I think that had a long career was the guys that were able to adjust. Yeah. I think those adjustments. I mean,

I feel like UFC still has such a long way to go to catch up to boxing in terms of paydays. Do you think they'll get there? I'm sure they'll get there. I mean, I don't know that there's a lot of boxing. There's not a lot of boxers that get the big paydays, though. I mean, there's not anymore.

There's not that many of them. Although the home runs bigger than, it's definitely huge yeah but and that's that's one thing with fighters I just like that home runner they always think I'm gonna get there yeah the real fighters

well most real fighters like I'm out they're not worried about they want they want they want to they want to be they want to shoot for that home run because they're going to be world champ yeah and then they're going to get they're going to get that big money yeah and that's you know a lot of I mean I obviously you can't speak for all but that's a fighting

mentality I'm the best in the world I'm going to show it and I'm going to make the big money well and then they all come hand in hand. I'm the best in the world. Then I'm going to start to make a bunch of money because I'm the best in the world. Right. And I mean, now we're, we have two weeks away from the Connor McGregor fight. So it's Connor Dustin three. How do you see that fight going? I'm expecting Connor to come in and have made some adjustments. He's a very, very smart martial artist. And I think he'll have made some adjustments and we'll see what happens.

I mean, I mean, Porre is tough. And he showed it. But, you know, he's got to be, he's still always got to be careful. Like, you know, I think if he does, if Connor's not ready for that leg, that leg kicking in and stopping the leg kicks, he's going to have a lot of trouble. But if he is, then he's dangerous all the time. And, you know, he's got to be careful and not get caught. I think Connor won that first round. I thought he won the first round too.

But you could see at the end of it, his leg was hurting already. And I was like, ooh, that doesn't look good. If that keeps going on, it's going to be of trouble. So we'll see what happens. Then Dustin started that flurry, and he just caught him. Like, that was it. Oh, yeah. But I think that had a lot to do with the leg,

with the leg being hurt and not being able to move right. Yeah. Not be able to, you know. And then Dustin finished him the way he should. You know, he got him hurt. and went and went and went. Yeah. That's how he put someone in the way.

Your name keeps getting thrown around as an opponent for Jake Paul. And you, what a reaction. Look, man, I don't mind messing around, joking around for that stuff. But I'm too big for the kid. I mean, it makes no sense for them to fight me, but he's not going to fight.

Even if his camp thought he could beat me, they have to be worried the whole time. Because the last thing I go for a fighter, especially in boxing, is power. So the guys he trains with know me, and I know, no, I can still, I still hit as hard as I ever have. So even if they think he could beat me seven out of ten times or whatever, they're going to be worried that, oops, he makes one mistake anytime during this fight, it's over. Yeah. So, I mean, it just, it doesn't make any sense. I don't think it'll ever make any sense for them to do any small for me.

You know, and, you know, they're moving them along slowly. Like, they should. The problem with the lot of guys is making a big name with themselves. The back of the old days, when the UFC guys had come over from other sports. Yeah. It's a big wrestler. All of a sudden, they're fighting top-end guys. Yep.

Like, they got thrown to the wolves, right? And it's like, they're not ready for that. They need to get a few warm-up fights and build their way up, and they need to learn a few more things as they're going and get better and better and then fight the top round. And then maybe they could have got there. But if you don't, like, if you don't, if you just jump right in,

sometimes now you might get caught by some of them that would have never caught, you have five fights down the round. I can only think of it working once in UFC, and that was Brock Lesnar. Right. And it didn't work for everybody else. Yeah.

And Brock was a, I was a national champ wrestler. And he was, they put him up against the wrestler. Yeah. Or a guy or a guy that wasn't really good against wrestlers too. I think was I think the first fight

he was with the guys didn't have a really Well then I mean Frank Mier kind of you know put him in his place right in his next fight

right 100%. Now he gets in there with a guy that's a great jitzoo guy and you got to try to

try to deal with that and you haven't trained for right it just feels like with the excitement that Logan Paul and Floyd Mayweather had for this last fight

feels like celebrity boxing is like it's a thing again you were just part of a celebrity boxing event yeah that I mean that was

Well, that was an interesting. I mean, it was fun. I mean, it was just an interesting matchup. I mean, a guy, you know, really big and really small. Yeah, this was Lamar Odom and Aaron Carter. Aaron Carter, yes. And you were the referee. Yeah, I was a referee.

And I, you know, I actually tried to get Aaron to get back up after getting knocked down. I think it was a second time. And he's, uh-oh. Like, I was that counting slow. And I'm like, come on, man. Let's go, let's go. Let's go. He's like, no, I'm done.

I mean, you know, he figured out he wasn't he going to do anything. I mean, if he was, he hit, I think he hit Lamar like eight or nine times unanswered in the beginning in the head. If that's not going to do anything, I think you're in trouble. Yeah. You're in a little bit. I think that's when you go, oh, no, he says it isn't working. Yeah.

I just, I think that there's maybe an opportunity for you. Are you interested in doing a celebrity match? I mean, I think Shaq was the name you threw out. Someone else threw out Shaq and I said, well, if I'm going to do a big basketball, guy. What about Barclay? He challenged me again in golf. He drove me I played in the Tahoe tournament. Okay. With a long

time ago, we were joking around about it because I actually wound up beating him at the last like in the 17th or 18th hole, 17th hole of that thing or something. I took the lead to be second to last. So I'm a terrible golf. But you weren't last.

But he tried to, he was trying to, the only reason I even came to my mind is because I'd just seen him right before that interview. And he said, man, you're coming back out to town anytime? I think he just wants to get that win. He wants to beat me. He got that golf. I mean, he goes out here.

He's playing good again. He just had that weird swing for a while. Hickup and his swing. Have you seen it? Have you actually seen it? I'd heard about it and saw it. I mean, it was really like he would start going to swing and he'd start going to swing and he'd go, like, what?

Like, what was that? Like, is he really doing? Like, how does that? I mean, how was that even possible? I thought he was kidding. I think you've got to be kidding. It's got to be a joke. Like you can't be doing that for real.

But he was. He was. It was some mental thing and mental blocker. I don't know. Weird. Speaking of unorthodox, I always wonder, because I grew up playing baseball.

Did you play baseball? Because the way you throw your overhand right is almost like a pitcher throwing a fastball. Yeah, I played baseball and I actually explain it like that a lot of time. It looks like that. That's what you want. You want to throw the overhand like you're throwing a fastball.

Now just you've got to close your fist. I just let him. I remember the first time I saw you because I was playing pretty competitive baseball the time I went, that's a baseball throw. Yeah, and it's an overhand. Most people will throw that overhand this way. Yeah. I threw it over here.

I throw it over my head because I want to come this way. You come this way, it's a lot easier. This is getting scary with these fists of fury right from the face here. It's a lot easier. So I always try to come. I want this angle. And you do it with your left as well. Yeah. Well, you have to, if someone's, you could do like an out, I feel a different, it's a, it's a different one, but it's a whip with my left.

I would same, same concept is one of my, one of the left hooks I throw. Yeah. It's kind of like it's like it's like a, it's like a, it's like a, it's just a whip throw and it's just a, it's just a, I'm getting nervous with these. It's thrown around here. It's right. It's a really, it's a really loose power, power, power punch. but it's not and you know and i i use a lot of different hooks like there's a little short ones i lose different hooks but um i i think i pride myself on throwing things from different angles and in different ways and i had different a lot of different tools to use yeah i was fighting if you could go back and do one of your fights over again which one do you think it would be win or loss um okay now that's hard to choose it would have to be i would want to i i want to i want to i want to

I want to go out. I would like another shot at Rampage. It's really who I'd want to shot at. But other the fights for the fans, I think the Vanderley-Silver fight, I wish we had two more rounds. I wish it was nowadays if they could make a non-title fight. Five rounds, yeah. That would have been really cool.

Yeah. I think we both deserve two more rounds. Do you think you would have done anything different if you fought Randy again? Um, no. No. No, actually, I, um, the first fight, I, I made my adjustments after the first fight. Obviously, I could go back and hopefully made the adjustments I made for the second and the third fight. Yeah. For the first fight. But I didn't. So, but, but, um, you know, I, I made the adjustments that I was able to, and all, big thing with him was I just keep turning the, turn corners and not letting him like push me against the cage. So I was just pivoting off and hitting him. And I think that was the biggest thing was being able to move in it and having them just being able to pivot out and hit him.

You know, he was trying to close the distance. And because he can't stay outside. He can't just stay outside and outfought. He was more of a boxing wrestler. Yeah, yeah. Dirty boxing and boxing. So if he stays too far outside, I'll just kick the hell out of his leg.

Yeah. And if he, but when he saw he's got to close the distance and when he closes the distance, I just kept turning in the corners and make it making a sharp turn. we could so you go past me and then I hit him. I'm like envisioning this in my head. I'm like replaying the fight in my head as you're saying all this.

Makes perfect sense. Yeah. And it's hard to take a guy down for wrestling when they're always side move, moving sideways. Yeah. Are you still training now? Not as much as I used to, of course, but I still, I lift and I try to hit the bag. Still look like you're in great. So I still try to get in for wrestling.

I haven't done a lot of wrestling. I try to get in. watching the help with the kids wrestle a little bit but they're not big enough to wrestle with me yet i can't wait until my son's big enough to wrestle me what's the best advice that you have for someone who's trying to get in follow your footsteps you know train hard like get trained hard is the biggest thing i mean but you got to find a good coach find good people find a good gym um i i i always say for people like like if you're a kid if you want to get your kid into it, wrestling is

great bass. Just straight, regular wrestling. And then, you know, and it's a good time to learn everything. You know, you learn, you know, good karate school. Good, good, or boxing or boxing school or,

you know, it's more the, for me, it's more the coach than, and, and jihitsu. Like, it's a good time, I mean, but if I had to have one, if you're bringing me a guy with one skill that I pick I would always choose wrestling just because you give me

you get me at say you bring me a kid at the 21-22 there was an all-American wrestler Division I one all-American wrestler I know he's tough I know he can cut weight I know I know and I know I know he knows how to get in shape

and I know he's he knows how to wrestle I can teach it's and there's a lot of skills that there's a lot of skills that there's a lot of kills that we won't have time from there on going to fighting to teach you for wrestling, from wrestling that you would inherently have from being years of mat time.

There's a lot of mat time we'll never get. And don't get me wrong. That doesn't mean I can't teach you good enough to be a good, ammate wrestler from scratch. Can't. That's not a problem. But if you're really out there trying to become, you know, it's,

you get a lot of stuff, you get a lot less hurt when you're, more flexible when you're little and you kind of get to learn it for free a little bit more. Yeah. And trying to get down there, busting people's heads.

Busting people's heads. Are you enjoying life after fighting, now you're a podcaster. So, like, you're on the other side of this a lot. Congratulations. Oh. It's called Icebreakers. Ice breakers, yeah.

So wherever people are listening to this, they can find your podcast. Right. And, yeah, it's fun. I actually, I'm having a really good time with it. I didn't know if I would. You've had a lot of great guests. too.

Yeah, and that's part of it too. I love talking to people. Dana White was an early guest. Matthew McConae was just on the show. Yeah. And those are great. And for me, I'm getting a little more used to being on the other side of it,

like where I'm asking questions. And I think with some of the people, looking back now already, some of the guys I know real well that I've talked to, I think I didn't, I could have pulled out a few more stories that were, that I already knew, that I really wasn't that interested in hearing.

Yeah. But people listening were probably I'm very interested to hear. Yeah. You know, I have to remember that this is for them, not necessarily just for me. Whereas, like, guys I don't know,

I'm sure I'm asking, I'm hoping, well, I get a little selfish with guys I don't know because I just want to ask them questions. I want to know what they're doing and whatever. But, yeah, I'm getting more used to it, and I think it'll keep getting better. And I'm having fun.

That kind of stuff. I mean, I was able to do things my career where at least now, like, I'm at a point where I don't really like doing something. I really don't have to do it, which is kind of nice. Yeah. I think you should have Steve Amy Oitchitch on the show, and I'm sure you've heard this. People think that you guys sound the same. You haven't been told that yet?

Yeah, you know, I've heard that before. You know, that's the thing. The problem with that is that we'll start talking to each other. No one's going to know. And no one to understand what we're saying. Because I was that with my trainer, Hackleman, John Hackleman, and he started going, he's like, huh? Like, people are like,

people like, me and him start talking and people like, what are they saying? Like, we understand each other, but it's just funny. I think that would be funny. I'd be fun.

I mean, if it was audio only, you might not know who's talking. But the funny thing with that too, like when I, when I was talking to Anderson, man, you were talking really clear that night,

that day. You did a really good job. I'm like, well, he doesn't speak the best English. I mean, he understands it really well, but I was trying to be,

I was trying to talk really, clear so he can you know make sure he got it and could read can understand what I'm saying yeah I mean he understands really well he just you know it's because he has kind of like has the translator a little bit too to make sure you know but it's like he's been

living here forever well yeah when we're talking you have no there's no problem like you have no problem like have a conversation with him I think that's kind of funny too I saw Glover Texera they were they were doing um they were doing a translator for him after a fight.

And I was like, what the hell is going on? I called him up like, why do you have a translator? Like, because he should be my training partner, sparring partner for years. I'm all,

he speaks perfect English. Like, I mean, mine is, I mean, better than some of my friends, at least, that are from here.

Yeah. You know, so he's probably clearer than I am sometimes. But anyway, but yeah, like, why, why are you not,

but they just like doing that? Yeah. Because he's Brazilian. so I lived for the crowd, I guess. I feel like you were so goal-driven throughout your whole career. Now that you're not fighting anymore, what are the goals that you're striving after now?

That was the big struggle, I think, right after retiring, you know, is what drives you now? Because, you know, I have a bunch of things I could do. I had a lot of opportunities more than most when I retired. Yeah. And the amount of guest appearances you've made, Simpsons, entourage, movies. I love doing that stuff.

stuff. And the movies now, I'm taking more serious and trying to get more serious roles and more roles and doing some more stuff. I mean, the COVID thing kind of screwed it up for a little while, but we get back to that a little bit because I enjoy it. I figured out I like trying to act. But I loved a lot of those cameos. I mean, Altarize. It was my favorite show. It was my favorite show. and I asked everybody I knew to get me on it. Everybody knew had any connection to the show. And now every single one of them took credit when I got on. Sure.

But it's fine. It wasn't like it wasn't like it was a money thing anyway. So I'm like, yeah, cool, thanks. Thank you. Thank you. And whoever can be contributed to getting me on the show. Thank you. I mean, it was really cool because I was told they,

because I just asked, I just want to be on the show. I want to wave high to Vince or something and walk on. because it was my favorite. It's the last show that I actually watched every week. Yeah. Like I make a point to actually make it to a theater or make it to somewhere that had, like if I was traveling, I got someone who's got HBO? I got to watch the, it's live and it's the first first show of this.

I might even go see it. There's the last show where I mean, I cared to get there and watch it the first one I wanted air. Right. So that's why I'm like, I just want to be on it. I was wondering. He's not all these cameos of people walking on. I want to be on it. And they, I guess they were doing that skit with the, you got got got skit?

Yeah, yeah. I think they had their version of punks. Yeah. Yeah. And they had a different prank originally. But they're like, oh, we got Chuck on. We might as well make him the prank. They rewrote it.

So I thought that was really cool. The reaction from Johnny Drama was so great. Oh, hi, Chuck. Yeah, it was awesome. And those guys were great. They made it real easy and they tried to help me out. So now that COVID is hopefully behind us, more acting, for you? Yeah, I would like to just start doing some more stuff. But we had, they had one,

we had one, I was going to actually be the main guy. I was playing a secret service guy, garden the president. It was a cool little script. And hopefully maybe they'll get that rebooted or whatever and get it going. But yeah, something will come up. So we'll see. Yeah. Thank you so much for inviting us into your home. It's been great. Thanks, thanks for coming on. Thanks for coming over. I'm happy to do it. And again, Ice Breakers is available wherever you're listening to this podcast. I end every interview talking about gratitude, because I think that if you can be grateful, you'll live a great life.

So what are three things in your life that you're grateful for right now? Grateful for right now. You know, I'm really grateful for my kids. They're probably the brightest thing in my life. You know, if I'm grateful, I'm grateful, I'm grateful for all the things, all the people that helped me get to where I'm here. You know, like I never forget anybody that helped me get, you know, I got to do everything I wanted in a fight world. You know, I became world champion, became, you know, and then I'm still, you know, able to live off that career.

You're still one of the most recognizable UFC fighters ever. You know, and I'm really just grateful to be alive, man. I'm here. I'm living, I'm, you know, enjoying, being able to enjoy my time

and be able to enjoy my time and even help other people. Like I've been, you know, I never wanted to be anybody's role model. I never wanted to be. I was not, it was a woman's model,

just me, me, but, you know, kind of realize that at some point you accept the fact that, you know, people look up to you or they, you know,

and I've had quite a few fans come up doing and say that I've helped them through things or help them, you know, that I inspired them, do things or be better. And I guess I'm grateful that, you know, I was able to help people, even though I didn't know I was helping them in the past.

And I can still help people, you know, do better things or be happier or get through difficult times. If I can do any of that for anybody. Yeah. You know, it's great. I mean, I actually had a guy come up to me the other day because, you know, hey, man, my dad just died and, you know, it's kind of an asshole. but my best memories with him

are watching you. Wow. And I'm like, okay. I'm like, that's a little different, but okay. You're welcome, I'm glad I could be there.

But I glad, you know, at least I, he's got, that's the positive memories he has with his dad. So, you know, it's a good thing,

you know, and that makes me happy. You know, like the things like, being able, I'm really grateful for, for those kind of interactions with fans, too.

Like, people come home and tell me, hey, you know, you help me get through, build me walk again. You know, I've had crazy stuff. I'm like, wow, you know, that really, that's probably one of the most gratifying things I have from my, left, like, from my career. Yeah. You know, people that I was able to inspire and help. Well, the amazing thing is you inspire

people, whether they're a fighter or not. You inspire people no matter what their occupation is. Yeah, yeah, and that wasn't, yeah, that was, I was, I was talking more about people that weren't fighters. I mean, there are quite a few fighters. Of course. have come up to me and said, you know, hey man, here's a picture I had with you. Someone posted it, but not even the Connor one,

a different one where I posted a picture. He's like, and he said like, hey, there's a picture of me with Chuck. With Chuck. He's the guy that got me in the fighting in. I fight in the O.C.

tomorrow night. Damn. You know, so that, that's pretty cool too. Yeah. So that, that really wasn't the one

I was really thinking about, but that one, that one's really cool too. Yeah. The fighter, I don't want, but ever, yeah.

This was really cool. So Chuck, thank you so much. Thanks, man. The Iceman, ladies and gentlemen, what a legend. I just think doing these interviews in person is so much better. I'm sure you'd agree with me on that. Although I'm grateful that we live in a time where doing an interview over Zoom is a possibility with someone who lives on the other side of the country

or the other side of the planet. Or when things were really bad with COVID, someone that lives down the street, but you could do them safely from the comfort of your own home. But I'm so glad that these in-person interviews are starting to creep their way back in here. So a big thank you to Chuck for inviting us into his beautiful home.

And thanks to you for hanging out with us on this one. Take a screenshot, tag us on social media. Let us know that you were listening. You can tag Chuck at Chuck Liddell. Tag me at Chris Van Vleet. And I'm curious if his prediction for the Connor McGregor and Dustin Porier fight is going to be right.

And speaking of that, I actually have a UFC 264 prediction video that'll be coming out very soon on my YouTube channel. So keep an eye out for my very bold prediction on that. I'll leave you with this from Steve Marbole, who says,

letting go isn't about having the courage to release the past. It's about having the wisdom to embrace the present. Be great. Be grateful. See you on the next one for some more insight. The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s flashback mockumentary.

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Ever heard of them? To Rock Bottom. Dude, I was born in 1987. Oh. I can't believe he's doing this. Hammer Alley. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.