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By: Jason Amadi, MMATorch Columnist
Nathan writes: I was wondering, do you think that Chuck Liddell would have fought one more time or maybe even still be fighting if he had fought Tito Ortiz instead of Rich Franklin?
A: Chuck Liddell looked better against Rich Franklin than he did when he was Light Heavyweight Champion. Had he won that fight, he probably would have continued and tried to make another run at the title. But the fashion in which he was stopped by Rich Franklin really proved that no matter how sharp his skills got, Liddell just couldn't take a punch like he used to.
Stylistically, Liddell has always been poison for Tito Ortiz, but the "Iceman" was just so susceptible to being knocked out by the end of his career that I think even Ortiz could have stopped him. For Liddell's sanity, it was probably best that it was Rich Franklin who ended his career and not the man currently masquerading as the "People's Champ."
Joseph writes: The best middleweight in the world is still just a middleweight...? Are you crazy? Anderson Silva would kill Jon Jones. Look at the Evans fight, Jones couldn't even finish him. Anderson's already been at light heavyweight and murdered both fighters; one of them was a former champ. Anderson is on another level from Jones. He'll be there one day but Anderson would piece him up.
A: I've said many times that Anderson Silva is probably the greatest fighter we've ever seen in MMA. He has three top 10 wins across three different weight classes, he's without a doubt the greatest champion the UFC has ever seen and I believe he's the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world; all of that said, I still think Jon Jones beats him.
Jon Jones has every physical advantage you could possibly have over Anderson Silva and is steadily closing the gap in skill.
If Jones were to straight kickbox Anderson Silva, I'd favor Silva for sure. But Jones is just so much larger and such a superior wrestler that I can't see a ground fight between the two going any better for Anderson than it did for his former Chute Boxe teammate Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.
Adam writes: I have a couple questions for you in regards to the judging in MMA and if and when the UFC will ever make it to the new Amway Center. My first theory on judging would be that one judge is an appointed official from the commission, just like we have now. The next judge could be a fighter already under the UFC roster and lastly the third judge could be a fan randomly picked from the audience. What are your thoughts on all of that? When will the UFC come to Orlando?
A: First of all, the judging idea is awful. A lot of MMA fans have no idea what they're watching and if you follow many fighters on Twitter, you'd know they aren't much better at scoring fights.
We've even seen retired fighters try their hand as judges and a lot of them have been awful. There simply isn't any sort of magic solution to MMA's judging woes.
As far as the UFC heading to Orlando goes, I doubt that's going to happen anytime soon. But, if you're down for a little bit of travel (and by that I mean 200 miles), you can head over to Ft. Lauderdale and catch UFC on FX 3.
Rusty writes: Given the new insurance plan the UFC has, do you think fighters are pulling out because they know they're still going to receive some sort of compensation for the fight? Seems as if it is happening at a much more frequent rate than before. What I'm getting at is, do you think guys would still fight with a minor injury if they knew they wouldn't get paid. Nobody is ever 100% in a fight anyway.
A: I doubt that's the case, especially at the elite level. Some top fighters pretty much were already having their surgeries taken care of by the UFC and if they weren't, they could easily pay for surgeries on their own.
Really, the insurance doesn't change a whole lot in terms of guys pulling out. The top guys are making so much money that the insurance doesn't mean much to them and the guys lower in the pay scale still need to paycheck.
Feel free to follow me on Twitter @JasonAmadi and direct your "Ask the Torch" questions to mmatorch@gmail.com
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