Chuck Liddell on Jon Jones' Twitter rant: 'If you're gonna go back at me, tag me'
Chuck Liddell didn't mind Jon Jones responding to his recent comments. "The Iceman" just expected Jones to tag him if he was going to do it on Twitter.
"The funny thing is he goes back at me, but if you're gonna go back at me, tag me," Liddell said in a recent interview at the EA Sports UFC 2 video-game launch party in Las Vegas. "Let me know you're going back at me, so I can respond. I just thought it was kind of weird."
Liddell said on The Fighter & The Kid podcast last month that if the two light heavyweight greats fought in both their primes he would knock Jones out. Liddell has also said in the past that he is not a fan of Jones' fighting style and he believes the former light heavyweight champ is too safe in the Octagon.
Jones, 28, responded to Liddell on Twitter, saying that he wanted to be cool with the all-time great, but his "hate" is "shifting things." Jones added that it's unfortunate that Liddell didn't fight smarter and his chin deteriorated late in his career.
Liddell, 46, said at the launch party that someone told him about Jones' tweets. Mostly, he laughed it off. Liddell didn't feel like he said anything that bad about "Bones."
"I wouldn't be mad at him if he says he could beat me in a fictional fight in my prime," Liddell said. "Is that gonna bother me? No. But if you ask me if I can knock him out, in my prime I could knock him out. Styles make fights. I wouldn't have a problem hitting him and sooner or later he would go down. He doesn't hit hard enough to stop me and he's not gonna outwrestle me. Sorry."
Liddell also stands by his view of not appreciating Jones' fighting style from a fan's perspective.
"He's a great fighter," Liddell said. "It's like Mayweather. Mayweather is a phenomenal fighter, I don't like watching him. I don't want to watch a guy outpoint a guy just enough to win and cruise.
"If that's the way you fight and you're the best in the world, you should be champion. Whatever your style of fighting, if you're winning by the rules that are set by everybody, you should be champion. I'm not mad at him for fighting that way. I understand it. Honestly, I talked about Georges St-Pierre the same way. As a coach, as a manager, I get it. Great. I understand what he's doing. As a fan, not so much. I don't get it so much. That's not what I want to see. But to each his own."
Jones defended the UFC light heavyweight title eight times before the belt was stripped of him last year after he was arrested in a felony hit-and-run incident. He'll make his return to the Octagon in an attempt to get the belt back against current champion -- and heated rival -- Daniel Cormier at UFC 197 on April 23 in Las Vegas.
Liddell, meanwhile, holds an executive position at the UFC and is a UFC Hall of Famer. He held the UFC light heavyweight title from 2005 to 2007 and defended it four times. Liddell remains one of the most popular names in mixed martial arts, but the only way to see Jones and Liddell fight is likely on the EA Sports UFC 2 video game that Liddell was promoting at the party.
The two legends seemed to have patched things up in Las Vegas during UFC 196 fight week, after Liddell spoke to media at the party. Jones tweeted as much.
Glad I had a chance to talk things out with Chuck tonight pic.twitter.com/x8cyyMZ7bl
— Jon Bones Jones (@JonnyBones) March 6, 2016
But it's pretty clear that Liddell's opinion of the way Jones fights won't change. Unless of course Jones comes out guns blazing against Cormier.
"I don't like that style," Liddell said. "He has great talent, but I would love to see him go after people and do what I think he can do. But he seems to play it safe. If you choose to play it safe, I'm not really that entertained by watching you."