This Day in MMA History (31 March)

331 Date (3/31) of 1999 when Chuck Liddell got back on the winning track at Neutral Ground 11 in Los Angeles by submitting Kenneth Williams with a rear naked choke at 3:35 of round one.

Only three weeks prior he’d suffered his first loss in MMA. It came against Jeremy Horn at UFC 19 by Arm Triangle Choke as time expired. The loss came some seven months after Liddell had traveled to Brazil and pummeled legend Jose “Pele” Landi-Jons for thirty minutes.

This stretch in Chuck’s life was filled with excitement to say the least. First in September of ’97 his daughter Trista was born. Then in May of ’98 he got his first fight in the UFC, a victory over Noe Hernandez. Three months later, in August, the Landi-Jons fight took place. And only two months after that Chuck’s second child, son Cade was born only thirteen months after Trista (not the same mother).

All this however wasn’t enough excitement for “The Iceman.” He and a wrestling buddy, Scott Adams decided to open a gym in San Luis Obispo in December. They had the place up and running by January of ’99.

Only a month or so after the opening, Liddell suffered the loss to Horn in Bay St. Louis (Mississippi). After all he had going on in his life, and then to suffer his first loss in what many considered a boring fight, one which could have hurt his popularity, do you think Chuck was worried?

Of course not, after all he is “The Iceman” and he didn’t sulk. Instead he went to Karaoke and in his book My Fighting Life said, “I was having a great time, although my friends knew better than to get me up on the stage and make me sing. It’s not that I wouldn’t have. It’s that I’m horrible. Really horrible Instead I sat at the table, relaxing, while I watched Nick (kickboxer turned promoter and friend of Chuck’s) belt out a heartwarming rendition of Jimmy Buffett’s “Margarita-Ville. And I knew everything was going to be fine. Eventually.”

And three weeks later on 3/31/1999, nine years ago today, he stopped Kenneth Williams to move to 3-1. Now Liddell is one of the most recognizable fighters in the world, holds a 21-5 record, and has a bestselling book My Fighting Life from which some of the above information was gathered. Guess you were right Chuck, eventually everything would be fine!