Chuck Liddell stands as the first major UFC star, a status backed by impressive numbers. On December 30, 2006, the MMA icon made pay-per-view history during UFC 66, where he defended his light heavyweight title in a rematch against Tito Ortiz. Their initial encounter took place at UFC 47 in April 2004, ending with Liddell knocking out Ortiz in the second round, despite some controversy from a temporary blackout caused by an accidental eye poke.<\/p>\n
At UFC 66, Tito Ortiz accepted his second knockout loss to Liddell without complaint, even praising him as the best fighter in the world during the post-fight press conference after Liddell’s third-round TKO win at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Liddell\u2019s toughness shone through, having fought with a torn MCL and suffering a tendon injury in his left hand during the bout, yet still securing victory. This event set a UFC pay-per-view record with over one million buys, earning Liddell and Ortiz a “Fight of the Night” bonus, a record that stood until 2009 when a particularly stacked card helped break it.<\/p>\n
The two fighters faced off again 12 years after UFC 66, completing their trilogy. Liddell had retired in 2010 after a string of knockout defeats but returned unexpectedly to fight Ortiz again. Unfortunately for Liddell, this comeback ended in a first-round knockout loss. Since then, he has stayed retired, showing no inclination to return to competition. Ortiz has fought a couple more times since but hasn’t competed since a tough boxing loss to Anderson Silva in 2021.<\/p>\n
Fan Take: This story highlights the resilience and legacy of two MMA legends whose battles helped elevate the UFC to mainstream popularity. Their rivalry not only captivated fans but also set pay-per-view milestones critical to the sport’s growth, underscoring why eras-defining fighters matter in MMA history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chuck Liddell stands as the first major UFC star, a status backed by impressive numbers. On December 30, 2006, the MMA icon made pay-per-view history during UFC 66, where he defended his light heavyweight title in a rematch against Tito Ortiz. Their initial encounter took place at UFC 47 in April 2004, ending with Liddell […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2443],"tags":[2444],"class_list":["post-36014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fighting","tag-fighting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}