After Phil Davis was injured and pulled from the main event of UFC 133 against Rashad Evans, UFC was in quite a pickle. Tito Ortiz, fresh off his win over Ryan Bader, initially turned the fight down. Then, Lyoto Machida agreed to the fight, but was holding out for “Anderson Silva money”. It turns out that there were some big names that were willing to step in even if they weren’t in the right weight class. Namely, Chris Leben and Chael Sonnen
“We got lots of guys that are animals, you know what I mean,” Dana asked Mauro Ranallo on The Fight Fix. “Like (Chris) Leben. Leben wanted the fight. Leben wanted to take the fight, Chael Sonnen wanted the fight. But those guys are 185-pounders. And I appreciate their desire, their fire but no, we want guys that are 205-pounders that are real fights at 205.”
Leben is coming off of a first-round KO of Wanderlei Silva at UFC 132 but is only a 185 lb. fighter. Sonnen, while an experienced wrestler himself, might have been a better choice had he not been booked for a matchup with Brian Stanna at UFC 136 this October.
The good news is Tito came around and decided to rematch Evans when Machida declined. The even better news is that “animals” like Chris Leben and Chael Sonnen fight for the UFC.
