Coming off a career revitilizing win at The Ultimate Fighter Finale 11 over Aaron Simpson and taking home KO of the night bonus honors, UFC middleweight Chris Leben is stepping into the gap left by the injured Wanderlei Silva and will fight Yoshihiro Akiyama at UFC 116. Leben will have basically two weeks to prepare, but should still be in fight condition for Akiyama who should be a solid test, though Leben doesn’t seem to think so. Leben recently talked to FiveKnuckles.com about his upcoming fight, and he doesn’t seem too worried:
“I don’t know a ton about Akiyama. My coach knows a bunch, but we haven’t even had a chance to talk much about our game plan. I saw him fight Alan Belcher and to be honest with you, I thought he lost that fight. He’s a good Judo guy, he’s got great Judo, fast kicks, maybe not the most power in the world. He’s a little bit shorter than me but he’s a good strong guy. I think that utilizing my skills, keeping it on the feet and clubbing him in the head with my left shouldn’t be too much of a problem.”
UFC 116 is set for July 3 and will feature a collossal heavyweight matchup between champions Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin. While the star power has dropped with the loss of The Axe Murderer the card still looks to be quite entertaining and The MMA News will carry complete coverage of UFC 116.