A tribute to the new light heavyweight UFC Champion, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson.

My Fighting Life, by Iceman Chuck Liddell

"When I walk out of the tunnel, I can see the lights, hear the music, feel the crowd, but it all begins to close off as I near the cage. By that point I'm thinking, I've been training hard, it's time to focus….Every man is born with a fight-or-flight instinct, and mine is to fight. It always has been.

What’s it like to have no fear, to make people cower in their shoes, to know the sweet satisfaction of knocking a guy out with a single, devastating punch? You have to read my book to find out. I’ve been called the baddest man on the planet. I’m the face of Ultimate Fighting Championship, the leader in mixed martial arts and the fastest growing sport in America. In 1998 I won my first MMA fight. Not long after, the UFC came calling, and eventually fought my way to become the #1 ranked light-heavyweight contender in the world. Not bad for a bartender with a college degree in accounting.

I was raised by a single mother and inspired by my grandfather, a first-generation Irish American from Mafia-run Brooklyn. I learned how to fight at a very young age. Now I’m 6'2", 220 pounds, and a trained lethal weapon, but I’m also fiercely loyal, maybe even a bit sensitive, and unexpectedly romantic. In raw detail, and with total honesty, I’m going to tell you the story of my fighting life—both inside and outside the Octagon—including my childhood in the poor section of Santa Barbara, gritty insider accounts of my major fights, stories behind my trademark mohawk and nickname, my ongoing rivalry with Tito Ortiz and deep-rooted friendship with Dana White, and how I balance life as a father, a UFC champ, and a superstar—or try to, anyway. With never-before-seen photos, Iceman is my true, no-holds-barred story of fighting my way to become a champion."

—From the Prologue

Purchase Chuck's New Book at Amazon:

Jardine (13-4-1) won 29-28 on two scorecards while one judge gave Liddell a 29-28 advantage.

Here are the official results for UFC 76 from the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.

Keith Jardine defeats Chuck Liddell via split decision

Forrest Griffin defeats Mauricio “Shogun” Rua via submission (rear naked choke) in round three

Jon Fitch defeats Diego Sanchez via split decision

Ryoto Machida defeats Kazuhiro Nakamura via unanimous decision

Tyson Griffin defeats Thiago Tavares via unanimous decision

Rich Clementi defeats Anthony Johnson via submission (rear naked choke) in round two

Jeremy Stephens defeats Diego Saraiva via unanimous decision

Christian Wellisch defeats Scott Junk via submission (heel hook) in round one

Matt Wiman defeats Michihiro Omigawa via unanimous decision

The UFC on Friday announced the addition of veteran Rich Clementi versus the less experienced but unbeaten Anthony Johnson to round out the fight card for UFC 76: Knockout.

UFC 76: Knockout

Date: Sept. 22, 2007
Location: Anaheim, Calif.
Venue: Honda Center
Broadcast: Pay-Per-View

MAIN CARD

* Mauricio “Shogun” Rua vs. Forrest Griffin
* Keith Jardine vs. Chuck Liddell
* Jon Fitch vs. Diego Sanchez
* Lyoto Machida vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura
* Tyson Griffin vs. Thiago Tavares

UNDERCARD

* Rich Clementi vs. Anthony Johnson
* Michihiro Omigawa vs. Matt Wiman
* Scott Junk vs. Christian Wellisch
* Diego Saraiva vs. Jeremy Stephens

Chuck (The Iceman) Liddell steps into the Octagon for the first time since his losing his belt to Quentin (Rampage) Jackson in May. Liddell takes on (The Dean of Mean) Keith Jardine, who is also coming off a loss at UFC 71 to then newcomer Houston Alexander.

Here are the results for UFC 75, live from London England.

Quinton “Rampage” Jackson defeats Dan Henderson via unanimous decision

Michael Bisping defeats Matt Hamill via split-decision

Cheick Kongo defeats Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic via unanimous decision

Marcus Davis defeats Paul Taylor via submission (armbar) in round one

Houston Alexander defeats Alessio Sakara via technical knockout (strikes) in round one

Gleison Tibau defeats Terry Etim via unanimous decision

Thiago Silva defeats Tomasz Drwal via technical knockout (strikes) in round two

Dennis Siver defeats Naoyuki Kotani via knockout in round two

Jess Liaudin defeats Anthony Torres via technical knockout (strikes) in round one

Further to our original post "Money? Hurt? When will we know "The Truth"?" The arbitration hearing to settle the dispute between Brandon Vera and his former manager is set for Sept. 17.

Vera, who recently landed a new six-year deal with the UFC under new management, will meet with the California State Athletic Commission to address his split with Mark Dion. Vera claims that Dion was responsible for his stalled progress over the past year and lied to him regarding dealings to negotiate a new UFC contract.

Randy Couture defeats Gabriel Gonzaga via technical knockout(strikes) in round three

Georges St. Pierre defeats Josh Koscheck Josh Koscheck via unanimous decision

Roger Huerta defeats Alberto Crane via technical knockout (strikes) in round three

Joe Stevenson defeats Kurt Pellegrino via unanimous decision

Patrick Cote defeats Kendall Grove via technical knockout (strikes) in round one

Renato “Babalu” Sobral defeats David Heath via submission (anaconda choke) in round two

Frank Mir defeats Antoni Hardonk via submission (kimura) in round one

Thales Leites defeats Ryan Jensen via submission (armbar) in round one

Clay Guida defeats Marcus Aurelio via split decision

Three rounds is all it took for Couture to win the UFC 74 fight against Gonzaga. The first round clearly belonged to Couture, who took the initiative early on with a left-right and put Gonzaga on the defense the whole round. Gonzaga was cut during the first round and Couture spilled some more of his blood during the second, forcing the referee to stop the fight and check on Gabriel. He appeared quite exhausted and it was hard to imagine Gabriel Gonzaga would go all five rounds. At the beginning of the third round Gonzaga managed an early attack which served only to anger Randy Couture, who pushed back with a powerful takedown and unloaded a magazine of punches, forcing the ref Herb Dean to end the fight and Couture retained his championship.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship 75 (UFC 75) is a tournament millions of people are looking forward to, including myself. This UFC 75 fight will include two heavyweight fighters – Mirko “Cro Cop” and Cheick Kongo. The UFC fights are always exhilarating to watch and so much fun to enjoy. The differences in the fighter’s strengths and weaknesses make for an interesting fight – something to look forward to in every fight of the UFC. Each fighter has been trained in a wide variety of different fighting methods – martial arts, kickboxing, wrestling, and more. It is a blast getting to know these men who train in specific types of fighting and watch them use those techniques in the UFC ring.

About Mirko “Cro Cop” –

Mirko Flipovic was born in 1974. He started out as a Croatian law enforcement officer, and then turned to kickboxing. From there he trained in mixed martial arts. His name, Mirko “Cro Cop” derives from him being a member in the Croatian Anti Terrorist Group. His professional career in fighting has been various and successful. He has been in the K-1 and the PRIDE 2006 Fighting Championships.

His left high kicks are by far his greatest strengths, which he has used to knock out many opponents. He has won many fights over different opponents, including Mark Hunt, Jerome LeBanner, Peter Aerts, Remy Bonjasky, Mark Coleman, Kazushi Sakuraba, Wanderlei Silva, and Josh Barnett. His other strengths include left straight, knockout power and experience.

In 2006 Cro Cop had to cancel a fight in the Open Weight Grand Prix due to a foot injury. That same year people started to talk about how he was going to enter the UFC, but there were just rumors then. In December of 2006 it was official that Cro Cop was going with the UFC with a two-year contract, six fight deal. On February 3, 2007 he fought at UFC 67 against Eddie Sanchez and won with a TKO in the first round! On April 21, 2007 he knocked out Gabriel Gonzalez in the UFC 70.

Cro Cop is 32 years old weighing 220 at a height of 6’2”. His overall mixed martial arts record stands at 22-5-2.

About Cheick Kongo –

Cheick “Kongo” Guillaume Ouedraogo was born in 1975 in Paris. He is also a heavyweight fighter who currently fights professionaly in the UFC. He has been training in mixed martial arts since he was 5 years old focusing on Kendo and Karate. He has also trained in Muay Thai, kickboxing, and Greco-Roman wrestling. Kongo started off his professional fighting career with a knockout in a fight with Andre Tete. He then knocked out Dave van der Veen, Gilbert Aldana, and won in many other fights. His first loss was to Rodney Faverous.

He trains with swimming, cycling, running, technique practice and sparring, and strength training.

Kongo is 32 years old weighing 240 at a height of 6’ 4”. His overall mixed martial arts record stands at 20-3-1.

Possible Outcome Of This UFC 75 Fight –

This will be an exciting fight that I just can’t wait to see. These two fighters have very different styles of fighting that should be interesting to see in action. One has been training since he was only five, and the other started in law enforcement. This fight is a hard one to predict, but that is what makes a good fight a good fight. Even with Kongo’s long time training, I am going to be rooting for Cro Cop in this one!

The Fight Network is reporting that MacDonald has verbally agreed to the bout, scheduled for Oct. 20.

Date: Oct. 20, 2007
Location: Cincinnati, OH
Venue: U.S. Bank Arena
Broadcast: Pay-Per-View

MacDonald (19-8-0) was on an impressive run before losing by TKO to Rich (Ace) Franklin back in March at UFC 68. From there he beat “Ultimate Fighter 3” veteran Rory Singer at UFC 72. Okami’s (21-3-0) last fight saw him lose to Franklin by decision on the same card.

Rumoured UFC 77 card is as follows:

* Anderson Silva vs. Rich Franklin (UFC Middleweight Title)

* Rashad Evans vs. Tito Ortiz

* Jason MacDonald vs. Yushin Okami

* Josh Burkman vs. Forrest Petz

* Stephan Bonnar vs. Eric Schafer

* Alan Belcher vs. Kalib Starnes

* Marvin Eastman vs. Demian Maia

* Jason Black vs. Matt Grice

* Jorge Gurgel is also expected to fight on the card

Stay tuned for more updates.

Learning the art of Wing Chun punching means to put the emphasis on the center line.

The only real way, in my opinion, to get maximum effect into your wing chun punching is to use the straight-on punch close to the body and gathering the force from the rest of the body with the arm extended in a sharp forceful hit.

This technique is the most effective means to create maximum force to the hit when it goes to the target and is also the most common punch; it remains the most fundamental and also the most basic. This is necessary to learn well before you take the next steps.

Sitting to watch the wooden dummy won’t get the punch technique down so that you can move on to something else. Dependent upon your own style, the fist may be held anywhere from the palm up, to the vertical fist. I like to use the vertical fist where my elbow will be held down and to the front of my body. I have always favored a vertical punch to be honest, because I that it is far more direct to the target, or to the assailant. A straight line is the shortest path to your target.

My punch is not executed by pulling the elbow from behind my body but instead the punch will travel straight toward my target from my own guard position, with my hands held to the front of my chest. I can then protect myself by keeping my elbow lowered to cover the solar plexus. This will make it harder for my assailant to execute the elbow lock and break.

Keeping my eye on the target, in this case, the dummy will help to gain the concentration that I need to deliver the punch correctly. Using the vertical fist is also far shorter to the target and will thus render the punch stronger when it comes in contact with the assailant.

Wing Chun punching should be executed as a straight thrust, instead of a swinging one, in that the straight thrust, with the weight of the body and the force of the close hit will render it more forceful when it hits the target.

Hold your fist straight in front of you with your elbow pointed downward. Make the elbow the centerline of the body. Ask your sparring partner to push into the fist, and you must attempt to resist the force that is pushed against you. You should feel the push in both the arms and the legs if your stance is correct for the wing chun punch execution.

If you do not feel it, then adjust your stance until you do for maximum force to your wing chun punch; this will ensure the learning of remarkable wing chun punching skills.