With his recent 95 second demolition of Renato Sobral people are once more saying UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell is unbeatable. I’m not convinced he is – his record is impressive but lopsided and examining who he has beaten and who he hasn’t faced gives reason to believe he isn’t the unstoppable machine many would have you believe.

Two caveats to get out of the way – firstly, no one is unbeatable because a lucky (or unlucky) blow can open a cut on anyone’s head and on any given day a doctor could stop the fight. Even Pride heavyweight champion, Fedor Emilianenko could’ve had his unbeaten record shattered had they ruled the Grand Prix final a loss instead of a no contest after a clash of heads left him with a huge cut on his forehead. Secondly, Liddell is nearly 37 and time catches up with everyone eventually. So sooner or later – just as Randy Couture did after shocking everyone by winning the title days before his 40^th birthday and holding it until he was 42 and his borrowed time ran out – age will defeat him.

June 2002 saw Liddell beat Vitor Belfort to become the official number one contender to Tito Ortiz’s light heavyweight title. That fight was significant for two reasons, one of which is that it went the distance and would be the last time Liddell failed to win in the allotted rounds.

The more important fact is that it was the last time Liddell faced a striker in the UFC. Although single discipline fighters are very rare these days, it is still generally possible to pigeonhole people according to whether they prefer to fight stnding or on the ground. Belfort, like Liddell, is a puncher and they slugged it out for three rounds before Liddell got a unanimous decision. I find it significant that Chcuk couldn’t knock Belfort out. Vitor is an unpredictable fighter – sometimes brilliant, sometimes awful – but his natural ability to take a punch is consistent.

So for over four years Liddell has faced nothing but wrestlers, jui jitsu specialists and other ground based fighters and he’s beaten them all. Tito Ortiz, Randy Couture, Renato Sobral, Jeremy Horn, Vernon White – all of them were knocked out when they stood with Liddell. The only exception was the first Couture-Liddell fight when Couture surprised everyone by beating Chuck standing and then taking the stunned striker down to the canvas. Liddell redeemed himself by winning two rematches by knockout having prepared himself better for the varied talents of the hall of famer.

Liddell has a great takedown defence. It is incredibly difficult to get him off his feet and even more difficult to keep him down. And he’s only getting better at it – I don’t see anyone in his weight division that could take Chuck down. Before last weekend I would’ve said Matt Hughes could but Hughes took nearly ten minutes to get BJ Penn down so he isn’t infallible. So the grappler gets frustrated with Liddell and has nowhere to go except standing and try to trade punches with him. A contest in which there will be only one winner.

So who can beat Chuck Liddell? The answer is another striker. The last time he was tested on his feet he was found wanting. Yes, he’s going to out-punch Jeremy Horn or Renato Sobral because their punching was awkward and half hearted, and they couldn’t take his punches. Put him in with someone who can absorb punishment and dish it out as well and you’d see a different fight. The obvious person is Wanderlei Silva but politics mean that match isn’t going to happen until Pride goes under or Silva’s contract expires. Forrest Griffin can take a beating and then some. It was said – half as a joke but it was nevertheless true – during the Ortiz fight that Forrest doesn’t get going until he’s bleeding. But he can’t take five rounds of abuse without the referee or the doctor stopping it. Michael Bisping is a ferocious striker (hands, feet and knees) and looks like he could take a pounding but he’s untested at anything like the highest level. He also seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth. Brandon Vera is another powerful striker in the light heavyweight division who hasn't yet been tested against quality opposition. Any of these three young fighters could take Liddell's crown or all three could end up rushed into a championship fight and be battered back into obscurity.

What then of possible middleweight contenders? Anderson Silva and Rich Franklin are both awesome strikers and moving up to 205lbs wouldn’t be a problem (Franklin has certainly fought at that weight before and looks awfully slender at 185lbs). Both could test Liddell as he hasn’t been tested before in the UFC. Franklin in particular is seen as one of the future franchise players in the UFC and if the light heavyweight division becomes moribund under an overly dominant champion I could see him being asked to move up a weight. He’s got the cardio, he’s got the power but the knock against him has always been a slightly weak chin. I’m not convinced he could take twenty five minutes of Liddell onslaught. Silva is still a largely unknown commodity at the top level of the sport. All we know is he’s awesome and he looked it during his 49 second UFC career to date.

I’m not sure why I felt the urge to write this. I don’t dislike Chuck Liddell, I just wish there was some chance of him being beaten. All the best champions have to have that air of vulnerability – Matt Hughes is the best American fighter in the world but BJ Penn might’ve beaten him, Georges St Pierre might beat him, Diego Sanchez might beat him. Liddell’s next fight is against Tito Ortiz and Liddell will win easily. 2007 looks to be more or less the same. Unless UFC’s plans for the UK include Liddell defending against Bisping and the home town advantage spurs the Brit on to victor. Maybe. More likely he’ll do what everyone does and get frustrated with Liddell’s calm, slow, methodical eroding style and make a fatal mistake.

As a post script to the theory that Liddell's downfall will come at the hands of a striker I'd like to mention the one wrestler who would’ve stood a chance of humbling Liddell, Matt Hamill. Hamill was one of the stars of the third Ultimate Fighter season and is an Olympic calibre wrestler. He would take his training partners down and stop them taking him down all with his arms held behind his back. Freakishly strong, unbelievably gifted and a possibly inheritor of Kurt Angle’s mantle, Hamill would have a bright future in MMA had TUF3 not uncovered one unfortunate truth – being hit makes him ill. Really – he took a couple of punches and had to go to hospital with dizziness and vomiting spells. Possibly this is connected with him being deaf (if his sense of balance is different due to his ears not working properly then sudden shocks might take out his equilibrium), certainly it eliminated any chance of him forging a successful fighting career. If his head had been as hard as it looked (he was a Matt Hughes type who looks like his head is made of an awful lot of iron) he’d be world champion in a year or two.