Jardine Upsets Liddell
Photo Credit: MeanJardine.net
With two hard hitters like Chuck Liddell and Keith Jardine, few thought their battle last night at UFC 76 would go the distance. And other than a very select few, such as his team in Albuquerque, New Mexico, almost everyone was counting out Jardine in this light heavyweight battle. But a focused and determined Jardine stood with Liddell for the full fifteen minutes, outscored the former light heavyweight champ and even dropped “The Iceman” in the second round. “I saw him getting tired a little bit so I was confident going into the second round of that fight”, commented Jardine. “I was focused, I was locked in, I didn’t stop with that punch, I just kept moving forward and try to maintain my focus the whole time.”
Jardine remained in the zone despite the heavy barrage of punches flying his way from Liddell. While with ill intentions and great force, many of the fists of Liddell were not able to connect on Jardine’s head, which was an elusive target throughout the fight. However, Jardine knew what he was up against. “ I was like, ‘Man, he hits hard’, because every time he touched me, even if I blocked it I kind of zinged out a little bit”, noted Jardine. “But at the end of the first round I started to see some openings and I felt I started to turn the tide a little bit, just a couple little moral
victories.”
The victory in winning over the fans was a confidence booster in Jardine knowing he would come through when the final decision was announced. “Anytime it goes to the decision you should be nervous but I fought the best that I could fight with maximum efforts…and I really felt I won the last two rounds and I knew the first round was close, so I was pretty confident”, said Jardine. “When I saw the crowd change–I was booed and everything in the beginning and at the end when the crowd was cheering me when I raised my hand, I knew that they thought I won.”
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