The worst seat in the house, by far, at any UFC show that Chuck Liddell attends is on the floor in Row 2, directly behind the company's vice president of business development.
Liddell doesn't exactly sit back and watch quietly, particularly if one of his friends is competing. He was jumping all over the place cageside on Dec. 12 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas when, in a mostly empty arena, his pal, Court McGee, was fighting Marcio Alexandre.
It didn't matter much that Liddell stood throughout most of the fight, because so few people were seated ringside for McGee's fight that early on the card. Las Vegas crowds are notoriously late-arriving.
But it was packed by the time Luke Rockhold walked to the cage at UFC 194 later that night to challenge Chris Weidman for the middleweight title. It made no difference, though, as Liddell, a close friend of Rockhold's, kept jumping from his seat, throwing his arms in the air, and expending almost as much energy watching, it seemed, as he did in some of his famous knockouts.
On Tuesday, it will be five years since Liddell announced his retirement as an active fighter and was named to a front-office position by UFC president Dana White. He loves the game as much as he ever did, and is a frequent presence at the major shows.
He's not certain if he'll attend UFC 195 on Saturday, when Robbie Lawler defends his welterweight title against Carlos Condit at the MGM Grand Garden, but he'll be sure to be watching.
"I just love the fights," Liddell said.
White, his close friend, had to plead with him to retire because he so loved to compete. He was knocked out in his final three fights but still wanted to go on.
He loved it so much that on Monday, discussing the five-year anniversary of his retirement with Yahoo Sports, he said with a straight face that he even loved cutting weight.
If there is one thing a diverse group of fighters who hail from every continent can agree upon, it is that cutting weight sucks. There is nothing like it, and most despise it intensely.
Liddell, though, is so passionate about fighting that he liked cutting weight, because of what it represents.
"… When I started to do that," Liddell said, "I knew that it was the final thing I had to do before I got to fight."
The sport has changed much in the five years since he retired. For one, women are now competing in the UFC, which wasn't the case during his career.
More significantly, though, is that fighters are now entering the sport as mixed martial artists, and not as, say, a wrestler learning how to put it all together later.
Liddell was the biggest star in the UFC during his day, and his bouts with Tito Ortiz and Randy Couture helped push MMA toward the mainstream.
The biggest stars in the sport today are featherweight champion Conor McGregor and former women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey. They're each great fighters in their own right, but they're also as popular for what they do outside of the cage as for their work in it.
McGregor's quick wit and penchant for trash talk have enabled him to steal the headlines and stand alone at the top of the heap in terms of widespread appeal.
His gift for gab can, at times, obscure the fact that as a fighter, he's pretty damn good. He knocked out long-time champion Jose Aldo in just 13 seconds in their bout at UFC 194.
That earned Liddell's respect, even if he's not crazy about the trash talk.
"I love the way Conor fights," Liddell said. "How can you not? I mean, the guy delivers. I've been an Aldo fan for years, and he's been such a great fighter, and Conor went out there and did what he said he was going to do.
"I'll be honest: I don't like the way Conor talks. I'm not a fan of that. I get it. I understand it. It's his way of intimidating guys and getting into their head. Everyone has their way of trying to get into the other guy's head before a fight, and talking is his way. I don't like it, but I can put up with all the loudmouth, crazy things he says when he goes out and fights like he does and gives you those kinds of finishes."
Rousey has been a great finisher in her career before being stopped herself by the most famous head kick in the sport's history on Nov. 13, when she was knocked out by Holly Holm.
White said he is planning the rematch for UFC 200, which many have said is too soon for Rousey to come back.
Liddell said he hasn't spoken to Rousey and isn't certain of what her next move should be.
He pointed out that he was able to turn the tables in a rematch after a loss in a first fight. Liddell was stopped by Couture at UFC 43 on June 6, 2003. He then came back to stop Couture at UFC 52 and UFC 57.
He only watched the tape of his loss to Couture once, and that came in his camp for UFC 52.
"I watched it and I said, 'Oh, OK, I see what was going on there,' and I knew I could beat him," Liddell said. "As for Ronda, it's hard for me to say. I haven't talked to her and I'm not in her camp."
He said Rousey should make an honest self-assessment of what went wrong before deciding upon her future.
He said he wouldn't arbitrarily rule out a rematch, if he was Rousey, but he wouldn't rush into it, either.
"Only she knows what was in her mind and if it was just a bad night that she can easily fix, or whether her confidence was shaken," Liddell said. "It looked to me like she went out there with the idea that she would try to box with Holly, which her coach [Edmond Tarverdyan] said she could do, and she got hurt early. That will affect what comes after.
"If she thinks it's just a situation where she messed up and she'll be able to make the changes that will make a difference, go ahead. But if her confidence is shaken and there are any doubts at all in her head, she should take a fight against someone else first. There's no right answer, so to speak. It's about what is in her head."
Liddell said he's excited to see Lawler-Condit on Saturday. Lawler is probably the closest thing to Liddell there is in the UFC, and he's coming off an epic victory over Rory MacDonald in what Liddell concedes is one of the greatest fights in the sport's history.
Liddell isn't about to designate Liddell-MacDonald at UFC 189 as the greatest fight ever, but he said it deserves consideration.
Lawler joined the UFC in 2002, when Liddell was one of the sport's biggest stars. Much was expected of him at the time, but it took him years to fully live up to those great expectations.
"He was always a really good fighter and a fun guy to watch," Liddell said. "But he kept working at it and plugging away at it. He matured and one day everything clicked, and boom, there he was on top.
"It's not like it was a fluke or anything. He's proven himself time and time again, and when you're fighting the best guys in the world all the time, you never know what is going to happen."
The only thing we know for sure is not to expect to see Liddell inside the Octagon again. He's thought about it plenty of times, but said he's never really come close to a return.
"I'm a fighter, and I'll always be a fighter, and it's what I love to do," he said. "There were times I thought about [coming back], but never to the point where I picked up the phone and asked Dana to get me a fight. But I definitely miss it. I'll always miss it. That's never going to go away."
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