UFC Middleweight Chris “The Crippler†Leben, who recently finished up an 11 day stint in a Portland, Oregon jail for parole violation, divulged to MMAWeekly.com how his incarcerated experience has helped him to see things more clearly, and evolve into a more mature individual. Personally, I found his anecdote about an inmate choking to be the highlight:
“You’d think that being a professional fighter might paint a target on his back, but Leben encountered more curiosity from his fellow inmates than anything else. They wanted him to show them some moves. Happy to oblige, he once demonstrated a choke on an inmate while 20 others watched.
Now I’m standing there with 20 prisoners around and they’re freaking out. This guy’s laying there, snoring like crazy. I’m like ‘it’s all right, it’s all right,’ then I realize they have cameras in here. I’ve just choked this guy out in jail – I could get in trouble for this. I kept telling them, ‘he’s fine, he’s fine,’ and it took this guy a minute to wake up. Finally he woke up and we had a laugh, and luckily I didn’t get in any trouble for it. That was beginning and the ending of my inmate coaching career.â€
“I told the guys it’s a blood choke, so you don’t have to squeeze hard,†he said. “So I was just kind of choking him with one arm while he’s standing up. And I told him just tap when you start to feel like you’re going to pass out. Well, he didn’t tap, and at the time I’m going wow, this guy’s pretty tough, I’m surprised he hasn’t tapped yet. He just drops to the floor in the cell.
Lesson learned: If you’re a professional fighter and you happen to find yourself locked up, don’t bother demonstrating any moves on fellow inmates. Unless you have to, of course.
The article concluded that while Leben would be an ideal candidate for the UFC’s spontaneous July 19th UFC Fight Night 14 event, he is currently looking at an August return at the earliest.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Leben is rumored to be fighting Michael Bisping at UFC 89 in early-October in England. Rumors for that event can be found here.
Latest
Go Leben! I hope you take it to Bisbing. I’m pretty sure in jail he could have taken out a guy twice his size.
i really like leban and i think it would be a great fight for bisping if that is true. either way i cant wait to see him back in the octagon.
anyone know when he actually got outta jail. i am curious how long he has been back to training.
Can’t wait for this fight…Bisping is going to get a rude awakening…
I never really liked Leben, my dislike wasn’t based on anything in particular, sometimes you just take to a fighter or you don’t. However, I never say the first series of TUF until very recently, today I watched him lose to Josh Koschek but in defeat uttered the words, you F*uckin P*ssy, i’ve not done with you Josh, you’ve gotta love it.
Can’t wait to see him go up against Bisping, assuming it happens this time, picking a winner is tough but I think Bisping will have just to much offense for him, I hope anyway.
He said that cuz all josh did was hold him on the ground for 10 mins…thats a pretty pussy way of winning….not hating on his style…I just can’t handle it when a wrestler holds someone down for 3 rounds and doesn’t do anything…I say leben by KO in the 1st….JPM..you should watch the leben and terry martin fight…
yes leban has a great chin but this again look at someone who has great strikes anderson silva. bisping is no slouch now why leban is good on his feat i dont believe he can hang with bisping speed never the less i am excited to see the fight.
I have to say that this could be a great fight. Both have good standup, Bisping may be more technical, but Leben can take a punch on the button better than anyone,a nd he has great angles and power. I think there is a chance for either to win, but Bisping does suck really bad at life, so I gotta go with Leben. Oh, and I haven’t said it in a while, but Bisping got beat by Hammill. You know it’s true.
i do believe that hammill beat bisping a rematch would have been nice except that he is a MW now at LHW i never liked bisping he was a crazy brit who happened to win the ultimate fighter but now he is a lot different. so i will look forward to see how many shots to the chin he can take!!!!
I agree with rutdog…I thought hell was gunna freeze over after that decision..either way this is bispings test to see if he can hang with the 185 crowd…I’d like to see the winner take on franklin for a title shot…fuck okami…he got lucky back in the day beating silva, he wouldn’t last a minute with anderson now a days
Cole Miller
I agree, that’s why I was so pleased that ret*rd Jesse Taylor got kicked off this weekends finale. Where can I find the Leben/Martin fight, I usually try youtube but can’t find it there?
Rutdog
You crease me up man, I thought you’d let that Bisping/Hamill thing go. Over the months I get the impression that dodgy decision hurt you the most, I hate to admit it but you do have a point
try mmalinker.com Its the best place I’ve found so far…
Holy f*ck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cheers pal
I couldn’t find that fight at mmalinker but I found collection of his fights on youtube…
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ITnSjO_7mCg
the terry martin fight is at the 4:16 mark…fuckin tight KO
Here’s my question, is Bisping ever going to fight outside of England?
He already has, he fought McCarthy in Canada & Evans in the States
Ill bet it was a rear naked choke and thats why the guy was walking funny afterwards.
Bisping usually will fight in England, because Dana and his boys are trying (intelligently) to win the international/brit crowd over to the UFC. He is their best export yet, and as long as he’s still winning they can market the h*** out of him there. But, these shows give the chance to not release the payrolls, so fighters like Crocop who was paid way to much can fight and no one know how much he was overpaid. Opinion, but mostly true.
I hope leben gets an early ko.