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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
When Forrest Griffin was forced out of Saturday's UFC 155 event due to injury, the UFC pulled his scheduled opponent, Phil Davis, from the card. That left an opening on the pay-per-view portion of the event, one UFC President Dana White opted to give to a returning Chris Leben.
Even when Leben's originally scheduled opponent, Karlos Vemola, was pulled from the event and replaced on a week's notice by newcomer Derek Brunson, White kept that bout on pay-per-view. Come Saturday night, the fight itself was the worst of the night, and White said afterward that he made a mistake putting that fight on the main card.
"I love Chris Leben, personally and professionally," White said at the post-fight press conference (transcribed by MMAJunkie.com). "But tonight, I think I made a mistake putting him on the pay-per-view. I should have had him on the undercard. He's been off with personal problems for a while. He's had a lot of time off, and he looked slow tonight. I wasn't crazy about that fight. That wasn't my favorite fight of the night, that's for damn sure."
The Leben fight wasn't even the UFC's first choice to put on the main card, and it was White who made a change to put Leben there. He took responsibility for that after the event, and said he got some grief from UFC matchmaker Joe Silva for making the switch.
"There was another fight that was starting the show, and I switched it," White said. "Believe me, Joe Silva ran over and let me know he told me that. And he was right. Joe, you're smart, I'm dumb – I get it."
Despite the fact that he took the fight on a week's notice, Brunson received some of White's ire for part in the less than thrilling fight, and didn't make much of an impression in his UFC debut.
"The other kid was looking at the clock like he was a 14-year-old waiting for school to get out the entire fight – looking at the clock," White said. "You're in the UFC your first time, and I wasn't very impressed."
Penick's Analysis: Brunson certainly didn't have a great showing, but anyone overly criticizing him after that is being too harsh. He wasn't prepping for a fight on the card, and came into it on very short notice with a lot of weight to cut. He did as well as he could have in that scenario, and still won the fight. He'll have to hope he can make a better impression in his next showing, which is likely coming on Fuel TV at best.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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