lets discuss Chris Leben

Bomber · 08-19-2006, 06:32 PM

I don't want to belabor this but I'd like to stress something others have brought up. Leben did not improve or change one iota after his lesson with Silva. He fought Santiago exactly same way, wading in with big looping shots. That's pretty damning evidence if you ask me. He's not champion material. If he rematches with Santiago, I'll bet against Leben this time, because Santiago will have learned from his KO.

spiritofbattle · 08-19-2006, 08:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bomber

I don't want to belabor this but I'd like to stress something others have brought up. Leben did not improve or change one iota after his lesson with Silva. He fought Santiago exactly same way, wading in with big looping shots. That's pretty damning evidence if you ask me. He's not champion material. If he rematches with Santiago, I'll bet against Leben this time, because Santiago will have learned from his KO.

Great point I love it. 100%%%%% agreed.

Goeth27 · 08-19-2006, 08:44 PM

Quote:

Why cant you say he will not be a champ some day. i think thats a resonable statment.

Which is why I wont listen to people like you. No matter what he does everyone will **** on him for his fighting style just like they have sylvia, and they still do sylvia.

kane · 08-19-2006, 08:51 PM

I guess lebens defense involves blocking shots with his face.

spiritofbattle · 08-19-2006, 09:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kane

I guess lebens defense involves blocking shots with his face.

LOLOLLLOLLLLLOOLLOOL

funniest post all weekk hahhahaahahhaa

Ninjabot · 08-19-2006, 11:53 PM

He is one of the most entertaining fighters in the UFC middleweight right now. When he fights you know somebody is getting knocked out.

Harms · 08-20-2006, 12:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OneBigThrow

if i hear this one more time im gonna send my head through the monitor

THERES NO COMPARISON, IT AINT FAIR TO THE ROOKIES TO USE FRANKLIN AS THE STANDARD

I totally agree. My point was that they shouldn't try to put him in a title fight anytime soon. I didn't mean he wasn't good cause he couldn't beat Franklin, I meant he just wasn't championship level yet. Any talk of him fighting Franklin is premature and unfair.

kimoraking · 08-20-2006, 02:28 AM

leben is fun to watch, he is just alittle emotional in the cage and he seems very immature he needs to calm down and concetrate on getting better, dont worry about the tittle shot, how come when someone wins a fight they automatically start talking about a title shot. dont make sense, just wait until the time is right, he is on a one win streak, no room to talk bout tittles

Bomber · 08-20-2006, 09:41 AM

Leben is a heavy puncher but he needs to learn to box. Walking forward to trade shots and throwing haymakers all over the place is not good boxing. A superior striker will kill him through the holes he leaves in his defence.

Jenkins83 · 08-20-2006, 10:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bomber

A superior striker will kill him through the holes he leaves in his defence.

As we saw in his fight with Anderson Silva.
I agree with what most have said, the way Leben is now he really has little to no chance against the top tier fighters in the MW division. He's a hard puncher, but he needs to improve his boxing technique and develop some ground skills if he wants any chance at being champ one day.

PrettyBoy · 08-20-2006, 11:09 PM

All of you can complain as much as you want, but I bet you have all watched his fights, and if his named appeared on a PPV that would encourage you to watch it more. Tough young sluggers like this kid put fans in the stands so sit here and bash him all you want but this kid is here to stay and IMO he's VERY entertaining. Alot of fighters are like this guy, IMO Tank Abott is pretty close besides age lol.. They go out there a brawl, isn't that what we all wanna see, some people get KTFO?? I know it's what I want. He learned from TUF and isn't letting a fight go to the judges so he's leaving it all out there and throwing so wild blows but that's what I like to see!
Sit here and bash him, but I think there needs to be more kids like this, IMO it's more entertaining. Don't get me wrong I like watching people get choked out and stuff but a K.O is much funner to see.
That's just my 2cents.

PrettyBoy · 08-20-2006, 11:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kane

I guess lebens defense involves blocking shots with his face.

That's kinda stupid.. take a punch to give it back twice as hard! almost all fighters have to take a punch to set up what they need to do.. takedowns etc. And if you can throw a punch back twice as hard as the other guy, i'd go punch for punch to!

tonster · 08-21-2006, 01:40 AM

leben is entertaining to watch because we all like to see trash talkers get their arses handed back to them... the worst trash he talks, the harder the arse whooping, the more satisfaction we get. guys need to learn to be humbe, a gracious winner.

RockemSockem · 08-21-2006, 08:55 AM

I don't think he's been talking much trash at all, especially compared to when he first appeared on the UFC scene. He trash talks to the extent that all the fighters are told to trash talk.

Bomber · 08-21-2006, 09:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by codyfromstorm

All of you can complain as much as you want, but I bet you have all watched his fights, and if his named appeared on a PPV that would encourage you to watch it more. Tough young sluggers like this kid put fans in the stands so sit here and bash him all you want but this kid is here to stay and IMO he's VERY entertaining. Alot of fighters are like this guy, IMO Tank Abott is pretty close besides age lol.. They go out there a brawl, isn't that what we all wanna see, some people get KTFO?? I know it's what I want.

First of all, maybe you should read the thread again. What I see mostly is that we find Leben's fights entertaining all right, but there are big holes in his game. How is that bashing?

Of course some people dislike Leben, because he talks smack, says he's going to be champ, but doesn't have the tools to back it up. Any fighter who does that is going to cause some backlash.

They go out there a brawl, isn't that what we all wanna see, some people get KTFO??

I would say most real MMA fans want to see someone with all the skills that make this such a fantastic and diverse sport (e.g. Franklin, Penn) or else someone who's so dominant and excellent at his game that he makes everyone else play (e.g. Liddell, Hughes). If what you prefer to watch is roundhouse slugfests, you might consider switching to something like Rage in the Cage instead of the UFC. I'm not bashing you, I'm quite serious. Those fighters are not as skilled in MMA as the guys in the UFC, but you'll see plenty of what you want; big slugfests and KO's.

sitnspin · 08-21-2006, 10:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RockemSockem

I don't think he's been talking much trash at all, especially compared to when he first appeared on the UFC scene. He trash talks to the extent that all the fighters are told to trash talk.

Do a search back through this section. Right before his fight with Anderson Silva he did a video interview that I linked to, where he was talking ridiculous crap, like how he's the best in the world at his weight and after he picked up Silva, dropped him on his head and pounded him out, he was going to go do the same to Swick and Loiseau and then it would be Franklin's turn, etc, etc.

I said something at the time like, "I hope you can back up your words in the cage", and you saw how it ended up going down.

If anything good came out of that Silva fight, it's that Leben learned a bit of humility and he hopefully got a lesson on going into a fight overconfident.

sitnspin · 08-21-2006, 10:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by codyfromstorm

That's kinda stupid.. take a punch to give it back twice as hard! almost all fighters have to take a punch to set up what they need to do.. takedowns etc. And if you can throw a punch back twice as hard as the other guy, i'd go punch for punch to!

I don't think this is correct. It's hard to shoot for a takedown if you let the other guy keep you out of range the whole time and you need the confidence to get inside on him, but that doesn't mean you should be willing to eat punches to do it. My background's in boxing, and I watch some of these "brawlers" in the UFC who could be ten times more effective if they learned better defensive skills. Head movement. Angles. How to use your quads to slip a punch and set one up at the same time. Leben thinks he's got the fight won because he hits hard, and that's ridiculous. He has to count on his opponent having equally sloppy standup. Watch the guys in MMA who actually know how to box -- Robbie Lawler, Jens Pulver, Tra Telligman, Arlovski, Rich Franklin, even Phil Baroni. Sure, they've ALL been knocked out at least once in their careers, but it would have happened a lot more if they were only relying on offense and not caring about defense, and a pounder like Chris Leben would do well to observe their styles. Between Leben, Ed Herman and Josh Haynes, I wonder if the Team Quest coaches are spending too much time teaching wrestling and not enough on stand-up, because all three of those guys are clumsy strikers.

Edited to Add: My point is that you won't get the chance to even use your KO power if you've already been knocked out.

Flying Triangle Choke · 08-21-2006, 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sitnspin

I don't think this is correct. It's hard to shoot for a takedown if you let the other guy keep you out of range the whole time and you need the confidence to get inside on him, but that doesn't mean you should be willing to eat punches to do it. My background's in boxing, and I watch some of these "brawlers" in the UFC who could be ten times more effective if they learned better defensive skills. Head movement. Angles. How to use your quads to slip a punch and set one up at the same time. Leben thinks he's got the fight won because he hits hard, and that's ridiculous. He has to count on his opponent having equally sloppy standup. Watch the guys in MMA who actually know how to box -- Robbie Lawler, Jens Pulver, Tra Telligman, Arlovski, Rich Franklin, even Phil Baroni. Sure, they've ALL been knocked out at least once in their careers, but it would have happened a lot more if they were only relying on offense and not caring about defense, and a pounder like Chris Leben would do well to observe their styles. Between Leben, Ed Herman and Josh Haynes, I wonder if the Team Quest coaches are spending too much time teaching wrestling and not enough on stand-up, because all three of those guys are clumsy strikers.

Edited to Add: My point is that you won't get the chance to even use your KO power if you've already been knocked out.

Excellent post.

PrettyBoy · 08-21-2006, 07:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bomber

First of all, maybe you should read the thread again. What I see mostly is that we find Leben's fights entertaining all right, but there are big holes in his game. How is that bashing?

Of course some people dislike Leben, because he talks smack, says he's going to be champ, but doesn't have the tools to back it up. Any fighter who does that is going to cause some backlash.

They go out there a brawl, isn't that what we all wanna see, some people get KTFO??

I would say most real MMA fans want to see someone with all the skills that make this such a fantastic and diverse sport (e.g. Franklin, Penn) or else someone who's so dominant and excellent at his game that he makes everyone else play (e.g. Liddell, Hughes). If what you prefer to watch is roundhouse slugfests, you might consider switching to something like Rage in the Cage instead of the UFC. I'm not bashing you, I'm quite serious. Those fighters are not as skilled in MMA as the guys in the UFC, but you'll see plenty of what you want; big slugfests and KO's.

All i've heard about Leben is how he's a crybaby he deserves this deserves that.. IMO that's trash talking except nobody knows what he's gone threw and neither do I. Your right I do like people getting KTFO more then anything else, becuase in my eyes it's more exciting. Look at Tank Abott, alot of people like him and what can he do? He was a pretty sucessful fighter in his MMA career and all he can do is throw punches. Don't get me wrong I love watching fighters like Shamrock/Ortiz/Franklin as much as the rest of you, but when someone get's KTFO it's more exciting to watch.
Most of you are probley right, he will never be a champion, but what do you want him to go around "Yeah i'll never be a champion blah blah blah?" seriously nomatter how good/bad a fighter is he has to beleive that he will someday be the champion, that's where they get there drive from but your right he will probley never be at the top of his weightclass but hell he can try.. and have alot of damn fun doing so.