Call answered as UFC’s Leben gets shot at hero Silva
After stepping in as a late replacement for one of his idols and delivering one of the best performances of his career, Chris Leben decided the time was right to do something he had been thinking about for almost a decade.
Leben had just filled in for an injured Wanderlei Silva to defeat Yoshihiro Akiyama almost a year ago in one of the best Ultimate Fighting Championship bouts of 2010 when he decided to call out Silva, a legend in the sport and one of Leben’s heroes.
Now he must deal with the reality of actually fighting Silva, known affectionately as "The Axe Murderer," at UFC 132 on Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden.
"A little bit of fear is good," Leben said of the middleweight fight against Silva. "I might be a little worried, but you know what, I’m going to get in there and I’m going to do what I do, because as men, that’s what we do. We look it in the eye — we look our issues, our fears in the eye, and then we conquer them."
It’s not surprising to hear Leben mention issues. The 30-year-old is coming off a crazy year, even by his standards, and has talked about seeing a psychiatrist.
In June 2010, he rallied to defeat Aaron Simpson and days later agreed to fight Akiyama on less than two weeks rest. Leben emerged victorious after an epic battle and was the talk of the UFC as it appeared he finally had conquered his behavior and substance abuse issues.
Then he was busted for suspicion of DUI in October, and on Jan. 1 he was knocked out by Brian Stann in a fight in which he claimed he fought sick after eating too much candy after his weigh-in.
After all that, Leben finally got what he wanted when the UFC announced he would get to welcome Silva, who hasn’t fought since early 2010, back to action.
When Leben was first starting out, he would watch bootleg tapes of Silva fighting in Japan and try to emulate his style.
Silva was a superstar and longtime champion in Pride Fighting Championships and is still popular — despite a 2-5 record in his past seven fights — because of his incredibly aggressive striking style.
"You’ve got to beat the legend to be a legend," Leben said. "And for me to be able to fight one of my heroes, I’m hyped. It’s like passing of the torch is kind of what I’m hoping for. I want to be able to bounce one of my grandkids on my lap when I’m old and tell them stories about back when I fought Wanderlei Silva, tell them stories about legends and the wars that I (was in)."
Leben has developed a similarly aggressive style, and Silva has taken notice. It’s one of the reasons Silva wanted the fight.
"A lot of guys ask to fight me, but I talked to (UFC president Dana White), because I want to fight with Chris Leben," Silva said. "I’ve been watching his fights, and he’s doing very well. He fights like me, and I know that we can make one of the best fights of the night or maybe the best fight of the year."
Leben knows he must do more than put on a great fight. He needs to beat Silva to get back on track after a loss to Stann that still bothers him.
He says he has the ability to bounce back.
"I think that looking back on my career, I’ve won a lot of fights that on paper I should have lost. You know, and that’s just grit," Leben said. "It’s pretty easy to switch gears once they start swinging at you."
He knows it won’t take long after the bell rings for Silva to start swinging.
Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509.