Co-main event for UFC 116 brings ironman

Chris Leben will fight second UFC bout in two weeks in quick turnaround.

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By Greg Beacham, Associated Press 12:46 AM Saturday, July 3, 2010

Chris Leben caught an early flight out of Las Vegas on a Sunday morning after stopping a previously unbeaten opponent in his last UFC fight. He was back home in Hawaii that night, having a large pizza with his girlfriend.

He awoke to the strangest phone call he had ever received. UFC matchmaker Joe Silva said he wanted Leben back in the octagon in two weeks — two weeks! — to face up-and-coming middleweight Yoshihiro Akiyama at UFC 116.

Leben had never heard of such a brutal schedule, and he knew it could mean disaster. Yet the more he pondered it, he realized he couldn’t resist a remarkable chance to make ironman history.

The shortest turnaround in years for a UFC fighter also was an opportunity for an atoning achievement in a career colored by steroids and legal troubles.

And even if he can’t beat Akiyama on such short notice, Leben would have hated himself for not trying.

“I knew all the reasons I shouldn’t do it, but I remembered that I’m a fighter, and they’re presenting me with a great opportunity,” Leben said. “I couldn’t pass up the chance.”

Before heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar fights interim champ Shane Carwin at the MGM Grand Garden tonight, July 3, Leben and Akiyama will meet in perhaps the most improbable co-main event in recent UFC history, pitting a Japanese judo champion with little stateside fame in his second UFC fight against a guy who just fought two weeks ago.

Leben (20-6) beat Aaron Simpson in his last bout, but said after the fight that he wouldn’t mind four to six months off before his next fight.

He gave up that hope when the UFC chose him to replace Brazilian veteran Wanderlei Silva, who dropped out of his fight against Akiyama with an injury on June 22.

“The thing about our sport is, it’s not like football,” Leben said. “You don’t have to study your opponent a ton. There’s a few key things, but other than that, my job is to oppose my will on my opponent, not plan for what he’s going to do to me, so I wasn’t worried about preparation that way.”