|
By Joe Hall 
"Man, I can't believe we're fighting each other," said Chris Leben to Benji Radach in the middle of their fight Saturday night in Oregon. "But you know I'm going to have to knock you out, right Benji?""You're not knocking me out," replied Radach. And then the fight played on, two friends putting their similarities aside to swing at each other for a while. "I knew technically, he was a better fighter than me," says Leben, a hard-nosed, bullheaded Team Quest creation. It was Radach with the upper hand after two rounds, according to Leben. Late in the third, though, he could sense Radach's lungs searching for air and finding little. He could also sense that Radach was ahead of him on the scorecards. So he stepped back, filled his chest with frustration, blew it out like a lion's roar, and then charged forward to finish the fight. "I felt like I was losing the fight and I had about a minute and a half left to do something," says Leben. "I let out a yell and I just threw like a 10-punch combo." If you could have snuck inside Leben's head at that point in time, you would have heard a voice saying something along the lines of, "Hell, I don't want this thing to go to a decision. One of us might as well go down." He faked a left hand, Radach went to cover up, and then Leben uncoiled the left as his opponent dropped his guard. The blow smashed into Radach's jaw, reportedly breaking it. Leben stepped in to throw a knee, but Radach, operating on guts and instinct, completed a takedown. Leben began working on a kimura, but says he could hear Radach telling the ref, "He broke me, he broke me." The referee saw Radach's bloodied mouth and stopped the fight. The rest, from Leben's point-of-view, is an ecstatic blur. The Aftermath "I don't think I've ever been hit that hard," comments Leben on Radach's power. "His right hand is so quick … it was actually just like I saw a flash and then realized I had got hit. I had no real chance of even moving out of the way. His right hand was just awesome." Radach was very vocal about his poor health in pre-fight interviews, mentioning things such as staph infections and spider bites and a general physical breakdown due to his rigorous work schedule. Leben, however, is unmoved. "I work full-time also," he says. "I drive an hour to the gym. I was sick and out of the gym for a couple weeks also. But the last thing I'm going to do is tell the guy I'm fighting that I've been sick. I want them to think they're going up against the best person possible. As soon as I heard him say that, I was like, 'He's already making excuses. I know I'm going to win.'" Radach probably wasn't 100% for the fight, not physically and certainly not mentally, but he was still pretty damn good. Leben beat the fighter in front of him; you can't ask for anything more. Now he's looking for another touted middleweight to take on. "I'd like to fight some other top level guys," he says. "Hopefully get my ranking up there and step into the UFC or K-1 or Bushido or something like that." Leben was rumored to be fighting in an upcoming Gladiator Challenge, but Radach's right hand has likely cancelled that for him. "I'm pretty hurt right now," says Leben. "My whole face is swollen up pretty bad from Benji. I know I'm not going to be able to train for at least a week or so, so I don't know how realistic Gladiator Challenge is right at this second." As for his friendship with Radach, Leben feels good about the win but bad about his comrade's broken jaw. That's the fight game, though, and contrary to popular conceptions, the two guys fighting each other don't have to hate each other. "Benji's always been my friend, and I'm sure I'll be hanging out with him soon," says Leben. "I need to give him a call." |
| © All materials contained in the Full Contact Fighter web site are protected by copyright and to be used only for personal and noncommercial uses. Public display or copying for sale or public distribution of any of these materials is strictly prohibited. |