6. Chris Leben vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama UFC 116 (20 seconds left)
Leben was filling in for an injured Wanderlei Silva in this fight, which was not received well by Akiyama. The Japanese fighter told the press he was disappointed he would be fighting Leben because nobody knew him in Japan or Korea, whereas Wanderlei is very popular. Leben stated that he took those comments personally.
Leben accepted the fight on short notice, and just weeks after he defeated Aaron Simpson at the TUF 11 finale. Things hadn’t been going too great for the TUF 1 alum at this point in his career. While Leben became a crowd favourite by going on a win streak that spanned the first 4 Ultimate Fight Night events, it all came crashing down when Anderson Silva made him look like a much lesser fighter. Anderson Silva’s first UFC victim was Chris Leben, and it really exposed that Leben was not an elite level fighter. From then on it was win some and lose some for Leben. This was the biggest fight he had accepted since the Silva fight.
It was arguably 1 round a piece heading into the 3rd, but Akiyama looked to be controlling the final round, even having gotten full mount at one point. But as Akiyama was looking for the ground and pound, the crafty Leben locked in a triangle and got the submission victory with just 20 seconds to go in the fight.
