UFC 116’s rocket red glare

Chris Leben? Really?! That about sums up the level of my anticipation for today’s UFC 116.

Sure, everyone’s tuning in for the Godzilla-vs-Mothra clash of the titans between heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar and interim champ Shane Carwin, and rightly so. But rarely has such a huge main event – some are calling it the biggest heavyweight fight of all time, and based purely on gross tonnage they’re probably right – supported by such a lackluster, uninspiring and just plain uninteresting card as it is tonight.

Yes, Chris Lytle and Matt Brown should stand and bang, Kurt Pellegrino and George Siteropolous should display a decent ground game, Stephan Bonnar should bleed all over Krzysztof Soszynski and Leben should fight a war of attrition with judo ace Yoshihiro Akiyama. That’s a lot of shoulds. And I’m tired of shoulds. There’s been a lot of that in the UFC lately.

Actually, the loss of Wanderlei Silva from the card due to multiple injuries, including three broken ribs, is a huge hole in the card. And the best that UFC prez Dana White and matchmaker Joe Silva could come up with for a replacement was the flame-haired go-nowhere sideshow Leben? He just freakin’ fought two weeks ago and I can’t even remember what happened or who he beat. How is he a worthy replacement – not skills-wise, because Wanderlei would run a freight train through Leben like he’s a heavy bag filled with pudding. There isn’t another 185-pounder who could/would step up on late notice to take on the Japanese judoka? I know, short notice, yada yada, yawn.

So here’s hoping the main event delivers, that Carwin TKOs Lesnar, as I fully expect him to do early in the second round. Lesnar already has built-in excuses for losing (i.e. illness, ring rust). And that the rest of the card delivers some surprises. It is the 4th of July weekend, some fireworks are in order.