Sober Chris Leben 'training excessively,' could a comeback lie on the horizon?

Chris Leben

At 35 years old, could 22-time UFC veteran Chris Leben be eyeing a return to the cage? “The Crippler” wouldn’t tip his hand but did admit he’s “training excessively” after recently completing his sentence at a California jail.

“I don’t want to preemptively throw anything out there, you know what I’m saying?” Leben explained to MMAjunkie. “We’ll just say I’m training excessively right now. What that means, I’ll leave it up to interpretation.”

Leben (22-11 MMA, 12-10 UFC), a cast member of the original season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” made his official UFC debut in 2005 and would remain one of the most recognizable figures in the sport for the better part of the next decade.

A slugger at heart who was always willing to take a punch to give one, Leben racked up “Knockout of the Night” wins over Aaron Simpson, Alessio Sakara, Terry Martin and Jorge Santiago during his 22-fight run. However, Leben called it a career in 2013 after quitting on the stool at the end of the first round of a UFC 168 fight with Uriah Hall.

It was Leben’s fourth consecutive loss and dropped him to 1-5 in his final six appearances.

Leben’s career was not without struggles, as he twice tested positive for banned substances, most recently following a 2011 loss to Mark Munoz. Leben battled substance abuse throughout his professional career, and he was twice arrested on DUI charges.

In September, Leben reported to a San Diego jail to serve time after pleading guilty to multiple charges in connection with a June break-in at the apartment he once shared with his estranged wife. With his sentence now complete, Leben said he’s returned to training as a means of getting his body – and life – back in order, and he’s been pleased with the early results.

“Here’s the thing, you know – obviously I got suspended after I fought Mark Munoz,” Leben said. “Then that next year in Hawaii, I didn’t drink for a year. I moved to San Diego, and I didn’t drink; I didn’t do anything. I was only on the medication I was getting from my doctor. I would have told you I was completely sober, but obviously that did something to me. The medication, Suboxone, is definitely sedating. So now that I’m off of it, I’m just really motivated, and I have a lot more energy. When I’m in the gym, I have like this laser focus that I haven’t felt in years, you know?

“It’s really exciting to be in there training with these 21-year-old kids and doing well against kids that, you know, the next generation. I mean, they might be 21 or 22, but man, they grew up in the sport. They’ve been doing it for a decade already. And I’m in there, especially in standup, holding my own with them. I’m still gassing out by the end of practice, but I’m training twice a day, five times a week. The weight is slowly but surely coming back under control. So I’m trying to get my body back in order.”

Leben will soon be on the road promoting his upcoming autobiography, “The Crippler: Cage Fighting and My Life on the Edge.” In the meantime, he’s on probation, and he’s subject to random drug and alcohol tests designed to ensure his sobriety. Leben said the punishment has proven beneficial.

“I have to be sober, or I go back to jail,” Leben said. “So from that aspect, it’s been great. I’m so ‘everything in excess and nothing in moderation.’ I think a lot of us fighters are. So the fact that I have to jump through these hoops already is just really pushing me down a healthy path. So I’ve really been focusing on my diet and training and trying to get my body back to working order.”

And once that happens, could Leben potentially step back into the cage? He’s not ready to say that just yet, but he won’t rule it out, either.

“Training for me, I think training saved my life before,” Leben said. “I think it’s what gave me that focus to try and clean up my life and everything else, and that’s kind of what I’m using it for now.”

“The Crippler: Cage Fighting and My Life on the Edge” will be released on Jan. 5 and is currently available for pre-order at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and IndieBound.