Chris Leben's Weight-Cut Announcement Is a Cheap Excuse for His Loss

Are people putting significantly too much stock into Chris Leben's announcement?

It certainly seems as such, and not so much for the right reasons.

Permit this writer to first submit this disclaimer: Not only did I not see anything wrong with Leben at the weigh-ins, but I also thought that the fight was an easy 19-19 standoff at the end of the second round.

Leben stole the first round, which was close in my eyes, but highlighted by Leben's signature forward offense and heavy-handed shots on the stand-up.

Munoz definitely showed us more effective usage of the "Donkey Kong Beatdown" style of ground-and-pound in the second round than he did in the first round, but let's not take anything away from Leben or Munoz, even though we're currently past UFC 138 and looking forward to UFC on FOX 1.

Munoz damaged Leben's eye about as much as anyone has ever hurt Leben's eye, but the truth is that while Leben might have at first admitted to not being able to see out of that damaged eye, he didn't want to quit.

Why else would he want to finish out that second round?

See the result of the fight as you wish, but don't take too much of what you're being given as far as the whole "Leben cut 21 pounds on weigh-in day" thing.

If he really did, he really did, but for a guy that supposedly was not in good shape last weekend, he held his own well.

This whole case could be something similar to what we see at UFC on FOX 1 this Saturday, as Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos are both heavy-handed fighters who deliver damage when they throw bombs from any direction.

All but Roy Nelson and Shane Carwin have been knocked out by Dos Santos, but Velasquez is as much responsible for the nasty laceration on Brock Lesnar's cheek as he was responsible for taking the UFC heavyweight title away from Lesnar.

If Cain can inflict some petrifying damage to Dos Santos, something not unlike what Leben received from Munoz's fists, will we be giving Cain his due for beating a credible opponent, or are we going to take a victory away from another wrestler and blame it on an allegedly bad "weight cut" during a training camp that likely was not a bad one at all?

I don't know, but I don't see the logic in saying anything aside from "one guy whooped the other guy's a**"...do you?