Chuck Liddell Reveals Serious Neck Injury Going Into Tito Ortiz Trilogy Match

Ultimate Fighting Championship hall of famer Chuck Liddell has decided to come clean about his ailment leading up to his 2018 match with Tito Ortiz.

Liddell spoke to Sherdog.com, where he discussed a major neck injury that resulted in surgery to fuse his vertebrae together. Shortly after facing Ortiz, he had a procedure done.

“The Iceman” returned from over a 10-year layoff to face Ortiz for the third time at Golden Boy MMA: Liddell vs. Ortiz 3. The two met on November 2018, where Ortiz exacted revenge by knocking out the 48-year-old in the opening round. The two previously squared off at UFC 47 in 2004 and UFC 66 in 2006, and Liddell scored knockouts in both bouts. They have since been featured in an ESPN “30 for 30” documentary about their rivalry.

“Right after the fight, I had my neck fused from C3-C4,” he explained. “But I guess…I didn’t really know that I had a problem and I was that pigheaded.”

After going over to Columbia University to get a shoulder procedure done involving stem cells, Liddell noticed something wasn’t right with his neck. He alerted the doctors to some soreness he was experiencing, so they performed an MRI and he eventually had it looked at.

“So I got the MRI, went in, and [the doctor] goes ‘so, you’re having some problems with balance and coordination, right?’ I go ‘no, I’m fine.’ [The doctor replies] ‘No, really? Do me a favor and go stand on the other side of the room and walk to me heel-to-toe.’ I couldn’t do it. I kept [losing balance]. Then I stood on one foot, [spread out my arms] and touched my nose with my eyes closed. And as soon as I closed my eyes I fell over.

“Before the fight, [the commission] showed up at my house for a drug test,” he admitted. “They also had me do all these neuro tests. One of the things they had me do is stand on one foot, close my eyes and touch my nose. Well, I fell over the first time I did it. So, [the next time] I just kept my eyes kinda open a little bit and did it. And I just figured I was tired. I didn’t know it meant anything.”


Liddell was able to remain on the card by sneaking through the neurological testing, but he went on to explain that he felt the promotion did not live up to its end of the bargain.

“I think they signed a Dazn deal and just…gave up on it,” he flatly stated. “[Golden Boy] let it go. They were thinking ‘oh I’m gonna make some money’ and they signed that big Dazn deal and they said, ‘have at it guys, have fun.’ They just kind of screwed us. They just didn’t care. I mean they weren’t promoting anything, they canceled all the PR things, I mean it was like they just hung us out to dry.”