Chris Leben says worst black eye came after Anderson Silva fight… but Anderson didn’t do it
A true legend in professional mixed martial arts, the now “Crippler” Chris Leben sat down to detail the worst black eye he ever had.
While you might think the shiner would come from a fight, it actually didn’t.
In an Instagram video posted earlier today, Leben said that the bruise came just hours after he fought Anderson Silva at UFC Fight Night 5 in June 2006.
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“It was the morning after I fought Anderson Silva. I fought Anderson Silva, and I got real, real drunk, and I passed out,” Leben said in the Instagram post.
“In the morning, when I woke up, I rolled out of bed and I accidentally rolled out of bed and onto the floor, I hit my eye on the corner of the nightstand. And instantly (poof sound), my whole is swollen completely shut. So now, I’m walking around Las Vegas and everywhere I go, the barista looks at me and goes ‘so, uh, how’d you hurt your eye?’ Cause everybody watched me get knocked out the night before, you know? And I’m looking at him and I’m like, ‘I hit it on the nightstand.’ And he is like ‘yeah ok.’ The next place I go, the waiter, ‘uh, how’d you hurt your eye?’ ‘Well, I hit it on the nightstand.’ So, it was super-duper annoying.”
Earlier this year, Leben fought a tough battle against COVID-19 which prompted him to officially retire from competitive combat sports. His last fight, a bare-knuckle bout with BKFC, was a victory over Quention Henry in February 2021.
Leben retired with a professional MMA record of 22-12. He was a cast member on the original season of the Ultimate Fighter in 2004 and spent nearly 10 years with the promotion, leaving in 2013.
