| Chris Leben’s Sweet Second Go-Round |
For a while after his stint on The Ultimate Fighter’s first season, everybody was talking about Chris Leben. He had
won five UFC fights in a row, progressively moving from castmate Jason Thacker up through contenders (Patrick Cote), veterans (Jorge Rivera and Edwin Dewees), and fellow prospects (Luigi Fioravanti).
Then Anderson Silva showed up in the UFC, and Leben was pegged as the guy to test the Brazilian in his Octagon debut in June of 2006. Not many casual fans knew of Silva’s exploits internationally at that point, but Leben and his camp did. And even though they wondered why the UFC wouldn’t want to slowly build Silva up to a fight against one of the game’s hottest prospects, that didn’t stop Team Leben from taking the fight.
“My coach Matt Hume watched several of his (Silva’s) fights in PRIDE and we knew exactly what we were getting into by taking the fight,” recalled Leben. “We thought there was a good chance I could take it, but I did tell (UFC matchmaker) Joe (Silva), ‘shouldn’t you build this guy up before you have him fight me? He’s a tough guy, but your average American UFC fan doesn’t have a clue how tough this guy is.’”
They knew after June 28, 2006, the night Silva knocked Leben out in just 49 seconds. All of a sudden, the positive press disappeared and Leben was seen as all hype and little substance, blown away by some guy most people didn’t even know.
These days, Leben laughs when discussing how people’s perceptions have changed, both of Silva and himself. Now, everyone knows Anderson Silva – the UFC middleweight champ - and how good he is. As for Leben, fans have seen him return from the loss, battle through some more ups and downs – in and out of the Octagon – and go on a two fight winning streak that has brought him to Birmingham, England to face the UK’s favorite son, Michael Bisping, in the main event of UFC 89 this Saturday.
And this time, he’s actually emerged as a sentimental favorite among fans who love a good redemption story.
“It’s definitely a change, but I don’t mind it,” he said. “It is weird and a different role than the one I’ve had in the past though.”
Much has been written in recent weeks about Leben’s newfound maturity and his cleaning up of a lifestyle that saw him partying and drinking too much and that which landed him in jail for 11 days earlier this year on an old parole violation. But this change didn’t happen overnight. It was a gradual process that began as soon as the first season of The Ultimate Fighter aired in 2005 and Leben got a chance to see himself the way the world did.
“There were several factors,” said Leben of his maturation process. “One was the show, having the chance to look at that and see how other people view me. Two was losing fights, and nobody likes that. Nothing is more motivating than a loss, and that’s definitely true with me. And three would be having my own gym and being a coach. It’s hard to tell the kids who are looking up to you what they should be doing when you’re doing something else.”
Life in Hawaii seemed to be the final kick in the pants for Leben, whose gig as the head instructor at the Icon Fitness gym in Oahu. It’s a job that has done wonders not only for his personal growth, but for his growth as a fighter.
“Once you start teaching, your attention for detail really shoots through the roof,” said the 28-year old Leben. “I spend all day critiquing other
people’s games, and my game reaps the benefits of doing that.”
It’s shown in his last two bouts, as he’s shown the ability to respond to adversity and still keep his cool in stoppage wins over Terry Martin and Alessio Sakara. Sure, the reckless abandon of Leben’s style is still there, but now he is a reckless fighter with technique. If that doesn’t make sense, you have to see it to understand it. What doesn’t need an explanation is the importance of this bout to both men. Leben knows what’s at stake, and though he respects Bisping, he does see some cracks in his foundation.
“I see a good fighter, a well-rounded fighter,” said Leben when asked for a breakdown of ‘The Count’. “But at the same time I see a fighter who might be starting to believe the hype, who might be starting to believe he’s a little better than he is.”
Does Leben see similarities between Bisping and the Chris Leben before the Silva fight?
“To some extent I do,” he admits. “I think he (Bisping) is kinda riding the wave, listening to the hype. The public’s telling him he’s the biggest thing in the world and the greatest, and I think he’s buying into it.”
Maybe Leben will be Bisping’s Anderson Silva on Saturday night. If he is, the Manchester product can at least take solace in the fact that Chris Leben has shown what it takes to come back from defeat and eventually get back to a UFC main event. And as Leben will tell you, when you have to take the long road back, it’s a lot sweeter when you do reach your destination.
“If you give a high school kid a brand new car when he’s 16, they’re gonna treat it like s**t,” he said. “If you make them work all summer and they use that money to buy a junker, they’re gonna care about that car. The same philosophy applies here. I’ve had to fight, claw, and scratch my way up, I’ve been in the mix, out of the mix, and in all that time, it’s just adding fuel to the fire. So this fight is definitely very exciting for me. There’s a lot of buildup, a lot of hype around it, and I’m enjoying that as well. I get motivated by hearing all the interviews, and it breaks up the monotony and makes it fun. I’m into it.”
| " | “Once you start teaching, your attention for detail really shoots through the roof,” said the 28-year old Leben. “I spend all day critiquing other people’s games, and my game reaps the benefits of doing that.” |
