Chris Leben vs Brian Stann in works for UFC 125
Chris Leben is going to fight Brian Stann on 1 January 2011 at UFC 125, put on by the Ultimate Fighting Championships, the world’s largest mixed martial arts promoter. Leben is coming off of two impressive
wins in two weeks, whereas Stann, the former World Extreme Cagefighting champion, has gone 3-1 in his last four. The news was reported by MMAjunkie.com
Leben has long been one of the UFC’s most reliable and dependable fighters, having fought an impressive 16 times since 2005, his promotional debut. He’s 11-5 overall in that period, and 21-6 throughout his
career. At times he’s struggled to put together the kind of win streak that would move him towards the title, but recently he seemed to be edging closer. After losing two straight, he’s 3-0 in 2010. On 19 June he TKO’d Aaron Simpson, and then two weeks later
filled in for an injured Wanderlei Silva against Yoshihiro Akiyama. As an underdog, he was dominated for over two rounds before securing a last minute triangle choke to pull out the victory.
After that performance, the question was whether he’d get a step up to greater competition and possibly a title shot, or continue to be used as a mid-level brawler to put on fan-pleasing bouts. With the announcement
against Stann, it appears the UFC is going the latter route.
Stann is a solid fighter, but is essentially on the bottom rung of the UFC middleweight division. Overall 3-2 in the UFC, he made his middleweight debut his last fight against Mike Massenzio in a fight in
which a loss probably would have seen him cut from the promotion. After losing the first two rounds, he, like Leben, managed to pull off a last-round submission victory by triangle choke to win the fight.
The fight will be broadcast via pay-per-view.
Tags: