Chris Leben Tests Positive for Steroids

November 3, 2008:
Chris Leben takes a hit bigger than any one of Bisping’s straight punches. He tested positive for the anabolic agent “stanozolol”. I don’t know anything about this drug. To me it sounds like the villain in a foreign film. However, Chris will be suspended from action for 9 months. He will also lose one third of his purse from the UFC 89 bout. To say that this hurts Leben’s career is an understatement.

What makes this matter even worse than it could be is the fact that so much of the hype around his most recent fight centered on him cleaning up his act. He told everyone that he was training like a true fighter. He referenced the fact that he had successfully quit drinking for the first time in his life. On the Countdown show we saw footage of him basking in the Hawaiian sunlight amidst the waves crashing on the rocks. It painted an image of a man truly at peace with himself.

What we see now is a man in deep trouble with a company he had just begun to regain favor with. I honestly felt that Chris Leben gained as much as one could with a loss to Michael Bisping. He proved to everyone that he could hang in there with a more technical fighter and not get picked apart. Well, he kind of did but not to the point where he was knocked out ala Anderson Silva. Of course Bisping is no Anderson Silva. Regardless, I’m trying to give Chris Leben all the credit he deserves.

And this suspension may not completely derail his career. Having said that, I don’t see how I’m supposed to take him as a serious competitor anymore. He already had a stigma for being someone who didn’t take his profession seriously due to his drinking and poor conditioning. This drug test just reinforces that image he was trying to get away from.

It has been said before (most notably by Dana White) that the most valuable thing in the fight game is time. If and when Chris Leben does come back it will have been about a year since his last fight. If you want a prediction as to how that will affect his career look no further than Brandon Vera. He looked awesome in his last fight before his hiatus, the first round knockout of Frank Mir. That was the last time Vera won a fight by stoppage. Since then he has lost three fights and has only a single victory to his credit, that being a three-round snoozefest against UFC newcomer Reese Andy. Vera lost time do to some silly managerial dispute.

Sean Sherk is someone who had his career sidetracked due to a steroid suspension. Sherk however is a former champion and one of Dana’s protected sons (see also Jackson, Quinton “Rampage”) and managed to recover, sort of. Stephan Bonnar, a fellow mid-carder from the TUF 1 generation is another fighter who has never recovered from a suspension. Granted, he also had an injury after his comeback. Injuries are inevitable when you’re training full-time for MMA. Substance abuse, on the other hand, is something that is in the fighter’s control.

Chris Leben can not afford to be an “unreliable” fighter. Whether it’s his cardio, overly aggressive style or willingness to take steroids he can ill-afford to be on the UFC’s list of “non-essential” personnel. With some 200+ guys under contract to the UFC and plenty more on the way almost any fighter is just one suspension away from being let go. Even with all that I’m not trying to damn Chris for his transgression. In fact, I want to wish him the best of luck and I honestly think he’ll need it if he wants to stay with the UFC.

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