Ex-UFC Star Reveals Harrowing Story Of Self Harm & Nearly Dying

This painful tale of a former UFC star will pull at your heart strings. Chris Leben’s story goes a lot deeper than you would think…

Former UFC middleweight and light-heavyweight Chris Leben had an exciting 11-year run in the MMA business, and nine years of that time was spent fighting under the biggest banner in the game, the UFC.

Making it to the semi-finals of the first ever season of the Ultimate Fighter, ‘The Crippler’ was a promising young fighter with a hard head and even harder hands. After his TUF 1 finale knockout over Jason Thacker, Leben was being pegged for a very bright future in the promotion.

Rocketing to 15-1, Leben was then paired with a little known Brazilian fighter by the name of Anderson Silva at UFC Fight Night 5. In a title eliminator bout with the future middleweight champion, Leben was brutalized and finished in 49 seconds.

It was only the second loss of his career, and the first time he’d been finished, and he was soon back on the horse and moved his record to 18-4, before the real dark period in his life began.

Just weeks before his August 2009 bout with Jake Rosholt, Chris Leben received a call that would change his life forever, and it very nearly cost him his life too. If you though you knew everything about the troubled fighter Chris Leben, think again.

Aside from testing positive for banned substances and losing four fights in a row before his eventual retirement in 2014, Leben’s truly harrowing lows came outside the UFC octagon.

Skip to page 2 to hear Chris Leben recall his brush with death, and how he self harmed regularly…