Zimooya

Source: http://www.vancouversun.com/

The Iceman finally came north, to fight before the Canadian fans he said “have always been great.”

As it turns out, they likely witnessed Chuck Liddell’s swan song at UFC 97 Saturday night.

“Were do I go from here? Going out to drink tonight,” the aging UFC legend said after being knocked out in the first round by Mauricio (Shogun) Rua. “This could have been the last time.”

It was hardly a huge surprise, but Liddell all but announced he is done, at age 39. He did so matter-of-factly, sincerely, but without a lot of emotion.

“That’s probably safe to say, but I’m not going to make any decision until I go home and talk to all my people, my friends,” he said.

If Liddell’s legend came out of Saturday night’s event a little tarnished, so did the reputation of UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, so often touted as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the business.

Silva won by unanimous decision over Brazilian countryman Thales Leites. But he went the distance. The Bell Centre crowd began booing in the second round. And UFC president and frontman Dana White was not pleased.

“I did not like the fight at all, period, on either side,” White said.

Was he embarrassed? “A little,” he said.

There was an attitude about Silva in the ring; every time Leites hit the ground, he would stand over him, hands on hips, taunting him. And when they stood up to exchange blows, more often than not Silva had his arms at waist-level — as if daring Leites to engage him.

Silva spent the news conference early Sunday morning alternately apologizing, and defending himself.

“I go out there to train to try to be efficient and have a perfect fight. Not every fight is going to be a knockout or some spectacular finish,” he said. “But what I trained to do, I felt I executed in there.”

Even Liddell jumped to Silva’s defence. “Every time (Silva) threw punches at the air, (Rua) fell on his back,” he said. “It’s a frustrating fight for a striker when, every time you go to hit a guy, he falls on his back. It takes two people to fight.”

White wants Silva to challenge himself more.

“Anderson Silva has the talent and the skill, in my opinion, to stop anybody in the 185 pound division when he’s on. Unless his hands and feet go, there isn’t much anybody can do about it. I just feel he hasn’t let his things go like he can,” White said.

When White suggested Silva needed to move up to the 205-pound weight class once again, to find that challenge, Silva’s eyes opened wide.

When the name of Montrealer Georges St-Pierre, the reigning welterweight champion, came up yet again, Silva rolled his eyes dramatically.

Silva said he didn’t know what was next for him. But he has got the message.

“It looks like Dana has something that he’s planning for me,” Silva said, referring to St-Pierre.