UFC honcho Dana White was Chuck Liddell‘s friend and manager back in the day, and when the UFC started to get big, White transitioned to being his boss. Which may or may not have made it easier when White told Liddell he had to retire.
Remember: that retirement came at the very end of 2010, after Liddell became a narcoleptic in the cage and couldn’t stop sleeping.
Well, Liddell fought Tito Ortiz this past weekend, got slept, and fingers have been pointing in all directions as to who to blame for Liddell’s plight. For White, the blame lies with Golden Boy MMA promoter Oscar De La Hoya, who set the fight up.
And as per his appearance on “UFC Unfiltered” (and transcribed by MMAJunkie), White thinks De La Hoya loves that Coca-Cola.
“I heard last week, the cokehead, Oscar De La Weirdo, is talking (expletive) that I don’t have any place to tell guys when to retire,” White said. “First of all, it’s called friendship, you (expletive) cokehead.
“I’ve been friends with Chuck Liddell for 20 years, and the reality is that Chuck Liddell retired when he should have retired, eight, nine years ago, however long it was, and Chuck Liddell’s almost 50 years old and has no business fighting any more. And the fact that the state of California even let that fight happen is disgusting – disgusting.”
White didn’t fault Liddell for wanting to fight and was shocked the UFC Hall of Famer “allowed himself to be talked into this stupid (expletive).”
“When I asked Chuck to retire, he didn’t want to either,” White said. “He should have retired when he did and stayed retired. But like the cokehead said, Chuck’s a grown man and can do whatever he wants to do. But that’s when the state of California has to step in and save him from himself.”
Someone has to save Liddell. Otherwise, he might fight again.