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Veteran warrior Chris Leben ended his pro fighting career tonight at BKFC KnuckleMania, knocking out Quentin Henry in the first round.
Leben, 40, went 22-12 in mixed martial arts from 2002-2013, and will finish 3-1 (3 KO) in bare knuckle boxing from 2018-21.
Live coverage for BKFC KnuckleMania continues here!
The 31-year-old Henry (2-1, 2 KO) rushed at the veteran from the get-go, but Leben was composed and showed his veteran savvy. He landed a clean uppercut in the clinch — allowed in BKFC — that hurt Henry’s eye. There was question about it being a thumb to the eye or a clean punch, but replays showed a clean punch, and that was the ruling from the referee, too.
But Henry was still given medical attention and a chance at a five-minute recuperation period, which is weird. He obviously continued on, as he was informed he’d lose by TKO if he did not, and it was the same rushing at Leben again. He caught Leben with clean shots as the two just winged bombs at one another, but it was a Leben left hand that dropped and finished Henry in 67 seconds of official fight time.
“I wanted somebody that was gonna swing like a motherfucker at me, and I knew Quentin was gonna do that,” Leben said after the fight. “That’s how I wanted to finish my career, so thank you to Quentin and thank you BKFC for that opportunity.”
We send our best wishes to Leben on his retirement, as he’s been a true warrior fighter in every discipline, providing a lot of great memories for fight fans over the years. He went out, as he said, in another war where it was all on the line with two guys throwing.