The issue of arresting someone like Liddell, is that even though he is tough, fast, strong and experienced, he is really not that smart. Im not trying to offend anyone, I am only pointing out his weakness. I've watched his fights in slow motion and in great detail. He relys on the fact that he is nearly impossible to knock out. He fights sloppy, even for MMA, and get hit over and over again. We deal with guys like this every day. The thing about LE and Military, is we have no other option but to be smart about our altercations. We are trained not to take unneccessary risks. We are not attempting to gain popularity or win an event. We are doing a job. Combat is part of our profession. Liddell is trained to fight one man, in underwear, with rules and a cup. We are trained to stop the forward progression of the attack and subdue the suspect while looking for his friends. We also have weapons. Liddell has never shown up for training and his coach sprayed him in the face with OC, hit him in the tricept with a metal baton, and had three other people jump on him and drag him to the ground. And, given him the instructions that if he can fight back and initiate a deadly force attack on the combatants he will be met with multiple rounds of gunfire. This is always in the back of the mind of guy that is fighting Police. He may be drunk, or crazy, enough to convince himself that we will not escalate a fight to that level, but it is social training that will cause him to falter just a little, due to self preservation, during the altercation. It is socially acceptable for a Police officer to strike a suspect that is larger and stronger, during a legal detainment, with an impact weapon, if the officer is in harms way and losing. It would be leagally acceptable to use an elevated amount of force due to common knowledge of Liddell's abilities and conditioning. That will give the officer a "mental go-ahead" to go to the next level, where he may hesitate if it were an unknown person. As an officer you will go into the fight knowing that you may use the amount of force you deem fit, to end the forward progression of the attack.
Just look up the video of the officer fighting the boxer , on youtube. That video set a prescidence for all law enforcement officers that know their limits in combat. If you CAN'T win in a hands-on encounter, you up the anti.
As for the part about the 10+ years of experience and being inneffective... I had an former Special Forces instructor, who spent time in the jungles of Viet Nam, tell me one time. " Never underestimate anyone that has 10+ years of training in anything. A carpenter that has been swinging a hammer for 15 years will eat your lunch if he is fighting with a hammer." I will bow low to a 10 year veteran of any dicipline. I have 25 years of training in various systems and diciplines and I know what a guy can accomplish in a decade.
I also encourage my student to experince the MMA world. Yes, you can get very close to the "fight or flight" level in that type of environment. I use a few "drills" to get my guys in that "fear factor". I will turn all the lights out, turn on some death metal, turn on the strobe light and have them play a sort of "monkey in the middle". one guy has 2min. with every guy in the circle, and then change out. It is mind-numbing!
Military is a whole different game. You have rules to follow, but the main one is "kill the enemy". Makes for more options to end the fight, than what is allowed for LE. And thank you for your "kudos" on my humble oppinion on a subject that is most controversial in modern combatives.