Chris Leben vs. Phil Baroni
UFC star Chris Leben come out of retirement to fight another former Octagon heavy-hitter Phil Baroni at World Bare Knuckle Fighting Federation 1 in November of 2018.
It was something of a surprise to see Leben return given that he had retired from MMA five years earlier and had already had an ill-fated attempt to make a comeback in the Bellator promotion due to a “life threatening abnormality” in his heart.
However, it was claimed he’d since been given the all-clear, leading to this battle of the veterans with Baroni, who had also had an extended hiatus from competing in MMA, but had logged a TKO victory earlier that year.
Everyone was expecting to see fireworks between the two notoriously heavy-handed strikers, but ‘The New York Badass’ Baroni surprised everyone by repeatedly opting to throw a single right hand and then clinch up with ‘The Crippler’ rather than fully engage with him.
It was a timid strategy that didn’t pay off for him as at the third attempt Leben caught him with a left hook that left him dazed.
Attempting the same strategy again Baroni ate a few short punches and fell to the canvas before getting back up on unsteady legs.
Coming forward again looking to clinch, Baroni was then caught by a hard step-back left hook from Leben that sent him face down onto the canvas and secured a TKO Victory just 79 seconds into the fight.
