Liddell's first licensed UFC cards arrived in 2009, when his fighting career was near its end. Topps gave him two RC-flagged cards that year, and a promo card from 2000 predates both.
2009 Topps UFC Round 1 #5 (with Noe Hernandez) — his first card in a UFC-licensed product, released 23 February 2009 per TCDB, and RC-flagged by TCDB. Confidence: high, with the dispute shown.
The two 2009 Topps cards
- Round 1 #5. A 'UFC Debut' bout card of his UFC 17 win over Noe Hernandez. TCDB flags it RC; the eBay catalogue lists it as (RC).
- Round 2 #39. His first solo card in a UFC-licensed set, released 30 September 2009 per Cardboard Connection. TCDB flags it RC too.
Cardboard Connection lists Round 1 #5, Upper Deck Goodwin Champions #70 and Round 2 #39 as his first-year base cards and says 'none of them are deemed official rookie cards'. That is a genuine disagreement with TCDB's flags, so the rookie guide keeps it visible.
The 2000 promo card
His earliest card on TCDB is a 2000 SEG/Crave Entertainment promo (#7), one of ten oversized cards handed out with gum to promote the first UFC video game. It isn't pack-issued and carries no RC designation, so it's recorded as his first card, not his rookie.
Mislabels to watch
Round 1 Silver and Gold parallels of #5 are sometimes sold as 'the rookie'. They are parallels of the same card, not a separate rookie.
