John Hackelman is Liddell’s friend and Santa Barbara is his home. I get that and I know how vital loyalty is to men in our professions (I am an active Army Officer). But no matter how difficult change is, losing is even more difficult, especially when you’re the poster boy of the UFC and someone whom thousands of fighters measure themselves against. But fighters take road trips outside their comfort zone to improve their skills frequently, yet Liddell never has and the result is three losses out of the last four fights because John Hackelman has reached his limit on developing Liddell as a fighter. Rampage Jackson recognized that Juanito Ibarra wasn’t doing anything to keep him competitive and moved to the Wolfslair. Tyson Griffin left David Terrell for Xtreme Couture. Chris Leben left Team Quest for Hawaii. This list of fighters who have benefited from a change in scenery goes on and on. Yet Liddell stays put.

This sport constantly changes because MMA is so young and has so many brilliant teachers and students within it. It’s probably the most dynamic sport on the planet and those who don’t keep up with that change remain in the ranks of the mediocre, dreaming of a day of greatness that will never come. If you don’t evolve, you will perish and none of us wants to see that happen to the Iceman. After the loss to Rashad Evans, Greg Jackson put the defeat into layman’s terms. “Chuck got predictable,” he said. “We didn’t change our game plan against him from Keith Jardine’s win. We saw that he dropped his left when he threw the right uppercut and took advantage of it again.”