Chris Leben, one of the brighter talents in the UFC, will take on Michael Bisping at UFC 89 in a middleweight bout on October 18 at Birmingham, England; Sam Caplan of fiveOuncesOfPain.com got an interview with Leben recently.  In the interview, Leben discusses his upcoming bout with Bisping, the pressure of fighting in a main event and much more; below are some excerpts from the interview:

Fiveouncesofpain.com: You are headed to England to headline UFC 89, do you feel any added pressure being in the main event?

Chris Leben: Added Hype, obviously. Pressure has never been a problem for me. When I enter the octagon what is happening on the outside doesn’t matter, they could surround the cage with a black curtain and it wouldn’t matter, I probably wouldn’t notice. When I am in the cage my opponent gets all of my undivided attention.

Fiveouncesofpain.com: Over the last few years, you have experienced a lot of personal and professional growth, is there one incident you can point to or reference as the turning point in your career?

Chris Leben: There are 3 actually.

First was of course the reality show. It was tough at times watching how other people were viewing me. You are young, in a house, drinking and don’t realize you look like a fool.

Coaching has made me approach things differently. I have a gym full of fighters, and I can say anything I’d like, but in the end you have to walk the walk. You find yourself in small part a role model .
Losing fights would be the third. Losing sucks! I watch a lot of tape, I study all of my fights looking for what worked and what I might have done different. I look back on some of my fights and know I could have been in better shape.

Fiveouncesofpain.com: Can you explain how training your fighters has helped your game?

Chris Leben: It has help tremendously, the major benefit is coaching makes me focus on details. I find myself looking closer to the little things and this makes me better as a fighter.

For the rest of this interview, click here.