{"id":10097,"date":"2009-04-13T15:33:40","date_gmt":"2009-04-13T20:33:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.capperspicks.com\/blog\/?p=10097"},"modified":"2009-04-13T15:33:40","modified_gmt":"2009-04-13T20:33:40","slug":"liddell-vs-rua-ufc-97","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/fight-club\/liddell-vs-rua-ufc-97\/","title":{"rendered":"Liddell vs. Rua UFC 97"},"content":{"rendered":"

UFC 97 Redemption – Chuck Liddell vs. Mauricio Rua<\/h2>\n

UFC 97 doesn\u2019t have quite the amazing roster of fights that UFC<\/strong><\/a> 100 has, but it does feature one of the most anticipated light heavyweight fights the organization has seen in a while.<\/p>\n

Both Chuck Liddell and Mauricio \u201cShogun\u201d Rua have all the talent in the world, but they haven\u2019t given very impressive performances in recent fights. Despite losing 3 of his last 4 fights, Liddell is the favorite in this one at -200 to +150 for Rua.<\/p>\n

Liddell\u2019s style has undergone some tweaks since he last fought, when he was knocked out by champion Rashad Evans. The hope is that he won\u2019t leave himself open for big shots by keeping his hands up more often.\"promo\/ufc\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Rua on the other hand is a pure muy thai striker by trade who is good all-around, but conditioning has been a problem in wake of some difficult injuries and that was on display in his last fight against Mark Coleman. Rua won the fight but most people weren\u2019t impressed by him. His camp, much like Liddell\u2019s, vows that a different fighter will be on display on April 18th in Montreal.<\/p>\n

So, the question is, does Rua\u2019s best beat Liddell\u2019s best? Probably, considering Rua was widely regarded as the best 205-pound import from PRIDE Fighting in Japan when he entered the UFC.<\/p>\n

Liddell\u2019s amazing power and size advantage seem tailor made to take out an aggressive striker like Rua, however. Liddell has fared awfully as a favorite in his last few fights, but it seems as though his style will play well against Rua. The clinch won\u2019t be too much of a problem for Liddell and Rua hasn\u2019t been able to use it nearly as effectively as he did in his PRIDE days. He also doesn\u2019t have quite the one-punch knockout power that guys like Quinton \u201cRampage\u201d Jackson and Evans have in his fists. Liddell is aging, but this could be one more big win to keep him among the top money-makers and big draws in the UFC as long as he plays his game and sets Rua up for a knockout blow.<\/p>\n

The key to this fight for Liddell will be to avoid getting too aggressive and to just lay back and wait for his opportunity like the Liddell of old.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UFC 97 doesn\u2019t have quite the amazing roster of fights that UFC 100 has, but it does feature one of the most anticipated light heavyweight fights the organization has seen in a while…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1436],"tags":[8627,12813,186,12814,12811,12817,12818,12816,12812,11349,1150,12810,2709,1932,12815],"class_list":["post-10097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fight-club","tag-bet-on-ufc","tag-bet-ufc-97","tag-betus-sportsbook","tag-betus-ufc-odds","tag-chuck-liddell","tag-liddell-rua-odds","tag-liddell-rua-preview","tag-liddell-vs-rua","tag-mauricio-rua","tag-online-ufc-betting","tag-sports-book","tag-ufc-97","tag-ufc-betting","tag-ufc-odds","tag-ufc-sportsbooks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10097"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10098,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10097\/revisions\/10098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}