Brock Lesnar’s Win Was Not the Best Story Of UFC 116, Chris Leben’s Win Was Just As Big!

Posted by By Sports Session at 5 July, at 09 : 42 AM Print

UFC 116 went down on Saturday, and coming out of it everyone is talking about the Brock Lesnar vs. Shane Carwin fight.  That was the headline bout of course, so that type of chatter is to be expected.  As in typical UFC fashion they played up this dramatic story, so that it would seemingly have a story book ending to increase the ratings and popularity of the product.

As everyone knows by now this was the first time Brock Lesnar has fought in over a year because of his bought with Diverticulitis, for a while medical professionals thought Lesnar may not fight again.  But Lesnar beat the disease and comes back to the UFC against an undefeated Shane Carwin who has beaten every opponent he faced in the first round.

This was like a perfectly scripted fairy tale, Lesnar against an immovable object that is Shane Carwin.  The fight even played out that way with Carwin destroying Lesnar in the first round, and nearly getting a stoppage he was pummeling him so badly.  Somehow Lesnar survived the first round, and came out in the second round immediately take Carwin to the ground.  Moments later Lesner gets Carwin to tap giving him the win by submission.  What a perfect ending for Lesnar’s comeback story.

That is all anyone is going to talk about for the next few weeks I am sure, but the Lesnar story is not the one I will remember from UFC 116.  Chris “The Crippler” Leben came from behind to beat Aaron Simpson about two weeks ago.  Well Leben was in the Octagon again less than two weeks later fighting Yoshihiro Akiyama who was slated to face Wanderlei Silva who could not fight due to injury.

Leben has been a forgotten man after his loss to Anderson Silva, I can’t even say it was a loss; it was a dismantling of Leben.  He has been one of the hardest workers in MMA over the last few years; he is seemingly in the Octagon every few months working his way back.  It is the transformation of Leben that has been most impressive; he was initially a brash, cocky fighter that rubbed people the wrong way.

Now Leben has matured, and has even started mentoring younger fighters out of his gym in Hawaii.  You can see how he has changed in the Ocatgon, he used to rush in relying on his solid chin and hard strikes to win his fights.  Now he has become a thinking fighter and adjusts his tactics in the middle of the fight, you can see that in this statement.

“I do think a lot when I’m fighting, believe it or not,” he said. “When I went for the armbar attempt and after that I realized, I said, ‘You know what? He’s letting me walk my legs up and leave them up there. He’s going to let me triangle him.’ So that’s when I decided I was going to go for the submission as opposed to just work to stand up.” (www.sherdog.com)

After the fight Leben asked for a fight with Wanderlei Silva, who knows if Dana White is going to give it to him.  Whether it happens or not Leben’s road to this point is going to be the thing I remember most from UFC 116, and not the win by Brock Lesnar.

Front Page Features MMA & Boxing aaron simpson, akiyama, brock lesnar, Chris Leben, chris the crippler, MMA, octagon, shane carwin, ufc