Leben Telling It Like It Is
By Thomas Gerbasi
Honesty. It’s in short supply in pro sports these days, with athletes usually speaking in an array of clichés that will tell you anything but the truth of the matter. Chris Leben likes to break that mold, in his career as a UFC middleweight contender and also in his personal life.
For him, it’s a way of reducing his stress level – which can get pretty high when you’ve got guys like his ‘Ultimate Fight Night’ opponent this Wednesday - Anderson Silva - trying to take his head off. But it can also get him in trouble.
“I’m just gonna say how I feel about things,” said Leben. “And anybody that can read through the lines can see why I feel this way. That is who I am. I’m gonna tell you how I feel. In the long run, it makes it easier that way. Sometimes it gets me in trouble. Sometimes my girlfriend asks me how this or that looks and I might tell her the truth, and maybe in some cases I should fib a little bit more.”
We can all probably follow that advice, but when it comes to matters of the ring, Leben’s straight talk is a breath of fresh air (at least for those of us covering his career), even when we don’t particularly want to hear what he has to say.
Take his fight with Silva. When it was announced, MMA fans were salivating at prospect of the UFC’s young gun taking on the Brazilian Bomber, who is one of the top middleweights in the world. But Leben thinks the fight isn’t going to be the Armageddon we’re all expecting.
“I think the fight’s gonna go a little different than everybody thinks,” said Leben. “I think people thought it was gonna be a bunch of fireworks and a real explosive fight. But it’s gonna be a lot of cat and mouse. Bottom line, he’s a standup guy, he’s southpaw, I’m southpaw, and he’s gonna be tentative and wait for me to come in so he can throw a left high kick or a big knee. I’m gonna look to come in with the intention of taking him down and ending this fight on the ground. That’s no secret.
When it comes to excitement, I beg to differ, but what do I know? A steel-chinned scrapper against one of the game’s premier strikers? Sounds like a winner to me.
In any event, this fight should be one of the more compelling matchups of the year, but you’ve got to wonder why Silva was given such a tough out in his first UFC fight. Getting the fight surprised Leben as well, but he’s definitely looking forward to testing his skills against Silva.
“Yeah, I definitely am,” he said. “He’s up there in the rankings as far as the best fighters in the world, and those are the guys I want to be fighting, so he’d be a really good win for me. I’d like to get this ‘W’ and move myself up as well.”
It’s the type of bout that gets fighters motivated, with no chance of losing focus come fight night. That may not have been the case for Leben in his decision win over Luigi Fioravanti in April, which was workmanlike, but not particularly compelling. He doesn’t agree with this assessment though.
“I think the thing with Luigi was, he didn’t fight to win, he fought to stay alive,” said Leben. “At no time was I in danger in that fight, and at no time did he ever hurt me whatsoever. The only thing he did was protect himself and keep himself from getting beat up too bad, and he did a good job of that. In order for a fight to be exciting, both guys have to fight.”
But with a 15 minute fight to deal with, how do you keep focused in a fight like that, when the slightest daydreaming can lead to a fight ending knockout or submission?
“Sometimes it’s frustrating, and sometimes those thoughts go through your head,” he admits. “But the bottom line is, I’m still at work when I’m in the cage. Until my hand’s raised, I’m still at work, so I make a conscious effort to never lose focus.”
Silva will make sure of that this week, but Leben’s confident that he will emerge victorious.
“He’s not gonna knock me out with his hands – that’s the bottom line,” he said. “I’m gonna keep my hands up so he’s not gonna land the high kick or the knee on me, so basically, I’m either gonna knock him out coming in looking for the takedown, or I’m gonna take him down and submit him.”
And if Leben should emerge victorious, it will be hard to ignore him when it comes to a possible shot at UFC middleweight champ Rich Franklin. Then again, this is the guy who said he wanted to clean out the division before he gets his shot at the title, so when you ask him to play matchmaker, the answer is what you would expect it to be.
“I wouldn’t mind fighting (David) Loiseau,” he said. “Are they gonna have me knock (Mike) Swick out again? That’s probably what they want. It seems like Swick sure is getting the easy road here.”
Get out of the way, Leben’s rolling now.
“Why didn’t anyone let me beat up ‘Diesel’ (Joe Riggs)? He (Swick) is fighting on the UFC pay-per-view, and here I am, fighting on TV. They make it seem like the pay-per-view’s the bigger event, and ‘Diesel’s an easy fight – I’d love to fight him. But it doesn’t matter now – I’m gonna go in and take out Anderson and then Swick’s gonna think he’s gonna get his rematch with me, and that’s what I would expect to happen.”
Okay, a little background.
In a WEC match in 2004, Leben knocked out Swick in the second round of their battle of young guns, and since then, Swick has been searching for redemption against his rival in the form of a rematch. Leben has been cool to the idea, but he also sees Swick getting a nice share of publicity through the UFC.com web show ‘Real Quick with Mike Swick’ and also saw his foe make his pay-per-view debut at UFC 60 with an impressive win over Joe Riggs.
Sounds like this one’s heating up just a bit. But first things first, and Leben promises a better than ever ‘Crippler’ on Wednesday.
“They’re gonna see a Chris Leben that’s leaner and meaner than they’ve ever seen, that’s in better shape than they’ve ever seen, and who’s got a bigger toolbox than they’ve ever seen,” he said. “I’ve really been working on all parts of my game, I’m focused, I’m prepared, and I’m ready to go into this fight, and I don’t want to just beat Silva, I want to make a statement. He’d better be in the best shape of his life because I know I am.”
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