UFC suspends Chris Leban for nine months

Photo courtesy of mmaforum.com

Earlier today, Dave Metzler of Yahoo! Sports reported in an article that Ultimate Fighting Championship [UFC] light-heavyweight fighter Chris Leben [pictured above] has officially been suspended by the UFC for nine months and fined one-third of his fight purse as a result of a positive drug test for the steroid Stanazolol at a post-fight drug testing session at UFC 89 in England this past Oct.

Leben, who lost to fellow light-heavyweight Michael Bisping at the UFC 89 event, becomes the first high-profile fighter suspended by the UFC for failing a drug test and joins fellow UFC fighters Tim Sylvia, Sean Sherk and Josh Barnett, all of whom were not only suspended after positive drug tests but also had to relinquish their championship belts.

UFC president Dana White stated that Leben [18-5] admitted to him that he used the drug, which is also known as Winstrol V, shortly after his win over Alessio Sakara in March and had believed enough time had passed for the drug to clear his system.

I am honestly at a loss for words over this situation. How big of a bonehead does one have to be to not only take something that is illegal in the first place but to also take it knowing that your going to be tested for it at your next fight and every fight in the contract? What is the logic that goes on in one's head when answering that question?

I had hoped Leben got a reality check after being arrested for a prior DUI case in Oregon this past April and having to spend 35-days in jail due to the arrest and violating probation but obviously, we the fans were all fooled by having the wool pulled over our eyes by Leben and his publicists.

Leben apparently hasn't matured from his time spent on the inaugural season of "The Ultimate Fighter" and believes like every other young person out there with no good sense in them, that they are indestructible and nothing bad is going to happen to them. Professional boxer Diego Corrales thought the same thing and look what happened to him almost a year-and-a-half ago.

Hopefully, this suspension will be the wake-up call Leben needs to get his life and priorities in order and when his suspension is up, he comes back a better and mature fighter that is more appreciative of the opportunity he has been given by White and the UFC and doesn't take it for granted anymore.