10 Struggling MMA Fighters That Will Bounce Back

Leben/Sakara Bump Sanchez/Bielkheden From UFC 82 Main Card


(Chris Leben, not on his best day.)

Andrei Arlovski? Undercard!

Josh Koscheck? Undercard!

Diego Sanchez? Undercard!

Chris Leben and Alessio Sakara? MAIN CARD!

That’s right! The UFC has officially added a middleweight bout between Chris Leben and Alessio Sakara to next month’s “Pride of a Champion” event — which is all good, but due to a lapse in judgement, it has been slated for the main card, and the scheduled fight between Diego Sanchez and David Bielkheden has been dropped to the prelims. (The full UFC 82 card, as it stands now, can be seen here).

We already know why Arlovski is being given a potentially untelevised undercard match, and we’d love to know what Diego Sanchez and Josh Koscheck did to deserve their dark-card status. We can’t help but see the main-card placement of Leben/Sakara — both of whom are 2-2 in their last four UFC fights and not particularly popular among fans — as a clear message that Sanchez and Koscheck are no longer in favor. Have they been bitching about money lately too? Does Dana White blame Sanchez for driving away Ali Sonoma? Did the UFC realize that Josh Koscheck’s hair gives people nightmares? Maybe if Leben and Sakara were hometown boys it would make more sense, but Hawaii and Italy are a long way off from Columbus.

To be honest, we get why any fighter who drops two in a row (a la Sanchez) might need to do a little penance, but Koscheck is coming off his first loss in six fights — against GSP, no less — and that doesn’t make him less of a draw than Chris freakin’ Leben. So yeah, mighty suspicious. We’ll do some digging and let you know what we come up with.

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Rahsad- February 6, 2008 at 8:25 pm
There are some things the UFC does that doesn't make any sense. The decision to put Leban versus Sakara is one of them. Someone in the booking department of the UFC isn't doing their job.
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alan- February 6, 2008 at 11:07 am
Never in my life have i seen a president for a organization like the ufc fuck so many things up and making headlines like he was the big star....fuck you baldie let the pros do their job.
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Chris- February 6, 2008 at 6:07 am
The Bielkheden fight will be on the ppv anyway, since there's always extra time - and it will be one of the best fights. I love Dana white.
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Surf- February 6, 2008 at 2:01 am
Ok....Sakara and Leben is an awful match to even think about putting on a UFC PPV. That sounds more like a UFN match somewhere down the line. Sakara winning his last fight really wasn't a dominating one nor one worth watching. The Martin/Leben fight was a good one but it still doesn't merit a spot on the main card.

Dumping Arlovski into the dark match region is just making his decision to leave UFC that much more necessary in his eyes. I hope he goes to M-1 and gets a chance to fight without having to worry about crap like this. All I was hoping was to see Arlovski/Cro Cop before he bolted and now it seem like that is going the way of the dodo......DAMN YOU DANA WHITE!!!!!!!!!
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OrMMA- February 6, 2008 at 2:00 am
I completely agree, I'm tired of the boring fights between Deigo and Koscheck. They are both dominate fighters, and who can forget Deigo's knee highlight SpikeTV plays every once and a while. That was ages ago, with the depth in the UFC(sort of...) They look for the explosive fights, The sad thing is..I'm guessing the Fight Night live before TUF7 is going to be just as exciting of a card. Followed by the 8 fights on TUF.
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duder- February 6, 2008 at 1:32 am
you fucking idiots. the other day you said diego deserved an undercard due to his back to back losses, stop picking apart the ufc at every chance. id rather watch leben and sakara bang then diego decision a ufc newcomer anyway
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MMA Ninja- February 6, 2008 at 1:20 am
I can't believe Sakara is still in UFC, in his last fight he just got lucky the other guy got injured.

Other than that he is a complete scrub.

Now pushing a fight with him on the main card is absurd. They couldn't have just showed his quick fight after the main event.
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godzillad- February 6, 2008 at 1:11 am
Diego's fight will probably go three rounds and be fucking awesome, while Leben will put Sakara out in seconds. Makes sense.
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Turdburglar- February 6, 2008 at 12:06 am
Gosh i cant wait to see Arlovski and Irish terry conklin.
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BIG CHRIS- February 5, 2008 at 11:45 pm
Forget Sanchez....But Koschek is a great fighter......and Arloski is an animal, he should be getting a lot more respect from the UFC than this, Chris Leben looked good in his last fight against Martin and so did Sakara....so i can see why they would put this fight on the card....I think the answer to this whole thing is to televise the whole card...if they are going to put quality fighters like this in each bout of the night, why not televise the whole thing??
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RonnieFrown- February 5, 2008 at 11:44 pm
Koscheck is a boring fighter. Thank God he is on the undercard
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Tim Sylvia's pussy- February 5, 2008 at 11:25 pm
Chris Leban is a bum no one cares to see him fight. I would much rather see Koscheck or Sanchez anyday.
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