“Chuck Liddell is stupid rich. Chuck Liddell is done. He’s got nothing left to prove. He’s the most famous guy on Earth. I love him like a fucking brother and I don’t want to see him get hurt. There is no reason for it. He’s fucking 40 years old man. These guys that are fighting now are young, explosive, fast fucking kids who are well rounded mixed martial artists. There’s no fucking reason for Chuck Liddell to be out there at 40 years old still fighting. I don’t want to make a fucking nickel off that ever. Believe me, it will be a fucking war if he tries not to retire, believe me. I love him. He helped me build this business. We started when he was making five hundred and five hundred. And we had the dream of him becoming a big star and winning the title and making all kinds of money. We did it all man. We fucking did it all. We did it. We did it. It’s fucking over. He’s 40 years old, it is over. It was amazing that he was able to fight until he was 40. That’s what a bad motherfucker he was. He has nothing to prove to anybody, period. It’s over. We did everything that we set out to do. It has been an amazing run, its been fun. We did it together, we stayed loyal to each other the whole time and we did everything that we hoped to do and now its over. He can do it financially. And plus, I’m going to bring him into the organization in some other way and he’s still going to make money. He’s been loyal to me and I’ve been loyal to him and that’s not going to change now that he’s retiring. He’ll always be a part of the organization. He’ll take on another role, he’ll still make money and he’ll be with me until the day we die…. I always say is that I’ve built this business using the blueprint of boxing, what not to do. We know that you shouldn’t be fighting past your prime, you know?”

-UFC president Dana White talks to insidefighting.com about his reasoning behind forcing former UFC light-heavyweight champ and close friend, Chuck Liddell, to retire after his latest defeat at the hands of Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at this past weekend. Before the bout, White stated that Liddell would have to win and win convincingly for the opportunity to keep fighting for the promotion, and now that he lost, White is adament that Liddell is retired. "The Iceman" wasn't so quick agree. At the post fight press conference Liddell said he'd take a few days to decide what's next. Liddell's head trainer John Hackleman said that Liddell would have a decision finalized within the next week.

Liddell's loss at UFC 97 loss was his fourth in his past five fights, with the other losses coming to Rashad Evans at UFC 88, Keith Jardine at UFC 76 and Quinton Jackson at UFC 71. If Liddell decides to retire, what a truly legendary career he has had. At 21-7, with notables wins over Tito Ortiz (2x), Randy Couture (2x), Vitor Belfort, Renato Sobral (2x), Wanderlei Silva, Jeff Monson and Alistair Overeem, Liddell stood atop the MMA light heavyweight mountain like no one before him, and quite possibly, like no one who will follow.