By Chris Howie
MMANEWS.COM Staff Writer
Fans will always remember being introduced to Chris Leben during the first ever season of The Ultimate Fighter where his antics included urinating on a fellow housemates bed and a heated rivalry with UFC welterweight Josh Koscheck. These days Leben has changed his tune and discussed some of the changed he has made over the course of his career in the UFC with MMAFighting.com:
“You have to fight that war on all fronts, internal work with my thought patterns and my old ways of dealing with issues and problems,” he said. “At the same time, there are situations I've had to remove myself from. A lot of good people I know that are still friends of mine, but they know we can't hang out because they're living that other life. The best thing for me is to not be around that. There are certain places I don't choose to go. If my friends are going to a bar instead of a restaurant, or a restaurant that is more of a bar, I don't go.”
“You really don't know what you have until it's taken away,” he said. “This was truly a blessing in disguise. I had that invaluable time I needed for my personal life. I do miss competing. I miss getting in there. I miss training for a fight and missed the paydays as well. I have a different mindset. I'm much more clearheaded. But with that comes different issues. There's more anxiety, more nerves, questions on how I'm going to perform. I'm trying to make that a positive thing, to push myself harder, to be more ready.”
“I certainly am tired of hearing about p***ing on (Jason) Thacker's bed, or when people ask me, `When are you going to fight Josh Koscheck,'” he said. “That was seven, eight years ago. It's over.”
Leave your feedback on this article by posting a comment directly below! You can also chat about the latest news in the MMANEWS.COM Forums and/or the MMANEWS.COM Facebook. If that wasn't enough, MMANEWS.COM is now on Twitter as well @mmanewsdotcom.
