UFC 132: Wanderlei Silva Will Meet Chris Leben in an Absolute War

In a bout that can be expected to be a total war, former PRIDE Middleweight champion Wanderlei "The Axe Murderer" Silva will meet Chris "The Crippler" Leben in a middleweight bout. 

Silva has not fought since his unanimous decision victory over Michael Bisping at UFC 110 and Leben has last fought at UFC 125 where he suffered only his second TKO loss of his career at the hands of Brian Stann. 

Fight Analysis

Striking:

Wanderlei Silva is famous for his berserker style attacks. However, in his last fight with Michael Bisping, Silva showed that and more, including a technical muay thai game.

If this technical aggressor appears in Silva in his bout with Leben i can say with some confidence that Silva takes it.

Chris Leben is primarily known for never back down, brawling style. He has shown time and time again that brawling with him is a very bad idea for anyone.

However, he has shown weakness against more technical strikers(A.Silva and Brian Stann). Which is why I think the key to victory for Leben would be forcing Silva to engage in a brawl with him.

Grappling:

Wanderelei silva is a black belt in jit-jitsu and does have an underrated ground game. If the fight does hit the ground (which I doubt it will).

It should be a fairly even contest (Silva's last submission victory was against Bob Shriber back in the Pride grand prix 2000 Opening round).

Chris Leben is not primaraly known as a submission artist but he has shown a solid ground game against the likes of Akiyama and Jay Silva. Which is why I think if it hits the ground it should be an even contest.

Final Prediction

I believe that Silva will keep the fight a technical battle and pick Leben apart with leg kicks and combinations(much like Stann did) and bring the victory home.

If the fight turns into a brawl, Leben could carry the advantage but I'm going with Silva second round TKO.