Look Back At Leben

joec87

Brown Belt
@Brown
Joined
Aug 17, 2007
Messages
2,623
Reaction score
65
I decided to take a look back at some fighters who may not be as appreciated as maybe they deserve. Leben has wins over W. Silva, Cote, Swick, Rivera, Santiago, Simpson, Akiyama. I remember thinking they cheated him out of a title shot when he was five and oh in the UFC and they gave the shot to Nate Quarry. One of my all time favorite fights is Leben vs Martin just an amazing comeback knock out.
 
I remember how upset the Wand/Pride fan boys were when he beat Wand.

Thank you Leben!

 
Last edited:
Should have gone to Japan where the competition was easier.
 
I am so glad you did this thread. He was my favorite fighter for a long time. Maybe my favorite of all time. I remember his loss against Silva like it was yesterday. I didn't know anything about Silva before that fight and to see him put Leben away so quickly and with such ease seemed impossible at the time.

If you guys would list favorite fighters/characters over the past 15 years in the UFC.... who would you have on there ?

Mine would be Leben, Nick DIaz, Dan Hardy, Forrest Griffin, And this one is a pretty shitty mention but I really liked War Machine before he went off the deep end.
 
He had the kind of skillset that makes you beat Wanderlei and lose to Bisping
 
I decided to take a look back at some fighters who may not be as appreciated as maybe they deserve. Leben has wins over W. Silva, Cote, Swick, Rivera, Santiago, Simpson, Akiyama. I remember thinking they cheated him out of a title shot when he was five and oh in the UFC and they gave the shot to Nate Quarry. One of my all time favorite fights is Leben vs Martin just an amazing comeback knock out.
I doubt he would've done any better than Quarry against Franklin. He might not have been stopped but he definitely would've been on the wrong end of a one-sided beating.
 
I remember the fight with Michael Bisping where bisbing was basically jabbing him the whole fight and he stood in the middle of the cage and let Bisping head kick him to show him that he couldn't hurt him
 
I remember local public access MMA TV show had him demonstrating some intricate submission that you absolutely never see in competition. Might be one of those you can only pull off on a passive training dummy.

When looking at his resume, you have to consider Wanderlei was past prime.
 
I don't think Leben was at his peak vs Wanderlei either though.
 
Leben was always super fun to watch. The positive steroid test kinda puts an asterisk by his name, but a lot of fighters were popping during that time.
 
Anderson got lucky and caught leben. Leben wins that fight 9/10 times.
 
Should have gone to Japan where the competition was easier.
getImage
 
I read his book recently. He basically has been an addict all his life. He always fucked up when things were going great. That's just the way he is. He is no champ material but he has had a nice career, he can be proud of that
 
Back
Top