British middleweight “Count” Michael Bisping (17-1) dominated “Crippler” Chris Leben(18-5) for a unanimous decision by judges’ scores of 30-27 twice and 29-28 once at UFC 89 in Birmingham Saturday night.
“It was a tough fight, don’t get me wrong; but, I felt comfortable all the way through it,” Bisping said after the “W”. “At no point did I feel really in danger.”
As Leben promised in his pre-fight hype, “Crippler” came out aggressive, landing kicks to Bisping’s body and legs. But, the Brit caught-on and countered Leben’s low kicks with a 1-2 combo, then a head kick. Bisping began peppering hard shots to Leben’s head as Leben came forward relentlessly.
In the second round, Leben paired his forward march with wild hay-makers; and, Bisping connected counter right hands like he was getting paid by the punch. Leben got frustrated with Bisping’s slick boxing and dropped his hands, begging Bisping to slug it out.
“The whole game plans was to do that,” said Bisping. “I knew he was going to come forward. Just use my footwork, spin on the left hook, jabs and right hands, and keep picking him apart.”
The accumulation of punches taken and wasted energy throwing hay-makers had taken its toll on Leben by round three.
Leben scored a single-leg takedown and landed a left hand; but, Bisping crawled up the cage and jawed Leben with a straight right.
Leben was knocked out by Middleweight Champion “Spider” Anderson Silva(22-4) in 49 seconds and isn’t ranked in the division; so, it’s unclear how close Bisping’s win takes him to a title fight.
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Comments
I swear to god the ufc is riged chris won that fight theres no way bisping got a ud. bisping ran away the whole fight. chris WON
I really liked Leben in this fight – I found myself rooting for him more and more as the fight went on – and I appreciated his comments afterward. (But I did agree with the decision, though I’m not positive that Leben was dominated so much as his face was.)
Brandon Vera needs to go see a sports shrink or something to get his head together.
Leben is a good fighter but if u saw him om the Ultimate Fighter you would knew what a crybaby he really was you wouldn’t be rooting for him.
And what about the illegal stuff he got busted for and is now suspended for 9 months, that’s bad for UFC integrity.