Bernard Fernandez | After taking a beating, Liddell wants rematch

IT IS IRONIC that UFC's biggest drawing card,

Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell

, had his championship lifted in the same arena in which boxing's most bankable superstar,

Oscar De La Hoya

, lost

his

just 3 weeks earlier.

If this keeps up, the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas will become known as the place where combat-sport dynasties go to die. And maybe that's as it should be. Hey, even the Roman Empire had to fall sometime. In the ring and in the octagon, as in life, nothing is forever.

Truth be told, Liddell's relinquishment in the first round of his light-heavyweight title to Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, in the main event of UFC 71 Saturday, might have even more far-reaching effects on his career than will the transfer of De La Hoya's WBC super welterweight crown to Floyd Mayweather Jr. Liddell is 37 while De La Hoya, who has now lost three of his last five bouts (and one of the victories was a questionable decision over Felix Sturm), is only 34. The "Golden Boy's" loss to Mayweather, widely regarded as boxing's pound-for-pound best, was on a split decision.

Liddell, however, now is 0-2 against Jackson. The first bout, Jackson stopped Liddell in the second round. You have to wonder if Liddell (20-4) has enough tread left on his tires to ever unseat the power-hitting Jackson (27-6), who at 29 might have established that he not only is better now than the defrosted "Iceman," but always will be.

"I'm going to be [champion] for a while,'' predicted Jackson, whose first defense of his shiny new belt apparently will come against Dan Henderson.

That means Liddell, poster child for the dramatic upsurge in popularity for MMA, must get in line and hope that a possible third meeting with Jackson turns out more favorably.

"I always want a rematch," Liddell said after he withstood "Rampage's" rampage for just 117 seconds. "We'll wait and see what [Jackson and his advisers] do."

It's not Jackson's fault that he is neither as glib nor as marketable as Liddell. For those reasons, he probably never will eclipse Liddell in some fans' eyes. An excellent fighter, Larry Holmes, learned that unfortunate truth in 1978, after he won the WBC championship on a split decision over Ken Norton and, for all intents and purposes, replaced the irreplaceable Muhammad Ali as the world's premier heavyweight.

Nobody said it was fair, but that's the way things are sometimes.

To hear WBO heavyweight titlist Shannon Briggs tell it, his fighting as an asthmatic is akin to Charles Lindbergh landing in Paris, Neil Armstrong becoming the first man to step on the moon and Michelangelo painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

To hear WBO heavyweight titlist tell it, his fighting as an asthmatic is akin to landing in Paris, becoming the first man to step on the moon and painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

"I'm the only heavyweight champion ever to have had asthma," said Briggs (48-4-1, 42 KOs), who makes his first defense against Russian southpaw Sultan Ibragimov (20-0-1, 17 KOs) Saturday night in Atlantic City Boardwalk Hall. "I think I'm the best fighter ever. I'm fighting with a disease."

Or with a ready-made excuse.

Briggs, 35, originally was scheduled to swap punches with Ibragimov on March 10 in Madison Square Garden, but the bout was postponed after he had what he thought was another flare-up of asthma. Two doctors - his own and one brought in by Ibragimov's promoter, Leon Margules - instead diagnosed him as having contracted pneumonia.

"I was born with asthma; I've had it my entire career," Briggs said. "But this seemed to be a little different, a little more severe.

"[Ibragimov's handlers] put out all these bogus rumors that I'm a coward, I was afraid to fight this kid. I mean, come on. I have 29 [actually 27] first-round knockouts. I fought George Foreman and Lennox Lewis.

"Asthma's one thing, pneumonia's another. This is personal now. I'm going to decapitate this kid. I hope his head lands in Leon's lap."

But if it's Briggs who has his hat handed to him, with his head still in it, it's a safe bet he'll mention his asthma again.

When the then-undefeated Briggs was stopped in 3 rounds by journeyman Darroll Wilson on March 15, 1996, he cited an asthmatic attack as the reason he lost.

Briggs' trainer of 5 years, Teddy Atlas, soon after disassociated himself from the fighter. Atlas noted that Briggs went to the hospital to get stitched up after the Wilson bout and "for 4 hours he never coughed or wheezed."

Atlas is a no-nonsense sort who is not big on excuse-making. He looks at Briggs now and still sees a talented fighter, but one who suffers from more than an occasional shortness of breath. The 6-4 Briggs has fought in the 270-pound range for the last several years, which is too high and might contribute to his stamina problems.

"Shannon has not always had a complete mastery of himself," Atlas said, diplomatically.

Popular junior middleweight Harry Joe Yorgey (18-0-1, 9 KOs) takes on Edson Aguirre (12-6-1, 2 KOs) on Friday night at the Blue Horizon, which is likely to dredge up bad memories for the Bridgeport fighter.

Although this is Yorgey's seventh appearance at the Blue Horizon, it will mark the first time he has fought there since he scored a 6-round, unanimous decision over Larry Brothers on Sept. 10, 2004, a fight in which Yorgey suffered a broken jaw in an early round.

*

Send e-mail to fernanb@phillynews.com