{"id":40940,"date":"2026-10-08T04:22:40","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T04:22:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Chris-Leben-to-return-to-MMA-after-nearly-13-years-against-Yoshihiro-Akiyama-203123"},"modified":"2026-10-08T04:22:40","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T04:22:40","slug":"chris-leben-to-return-to-mma-after-nearly-13-years-against-yoshihiro-akiyama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/chris-leben-to-return-to-mma-after-nearly-13-years-against-yoshihiro-akiyama\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Leben to return to MMA after nearly 13 years against Yoshihiro Akiyama"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

Chris
\nLeben<\/a> is set to return to mixed martial arts nearly 13 years
\nafter his last
\nUltimate Fighting Championship<\/a> appearance.<\/p>\n

Black Combat announced Wednesday that Leben will face Yoshihiro
\nAkiyama<\/a> at its Black Combat 17: Vantablack event on Nov. 21 at
\nGocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, South Korea. The bout will serve as
\nAkiyama\u2019s retirement fight, according to the promotion.<\/p>\n

\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Chris Leben and Yoshihiro Akiyama first fought at UFC 116 in
\n2010<\/h2>\n

Leben (22-12) and Akiyama (16-7) first met at UFC
\n116<\/a> in 2010. Leben accepted the matchup on short notice and
\nrallied to submit Akiyama with a triangle choke in the third
\nround.<\/p>\n

Leben, 46, hasn\u2019t competed in MMA since December 2013, when he lost
\nto Uriah
\nHall<\/a>. The UFC veteran announced his retirement from MMA in
\nJanuary 2014, with plans to focus on coaching. He later signed with
\nBellator in 2016, but his comeback was halted after medical tests
\nrevealed a serious heart condition.<\/p>\n

Leben eventually competed in bare-knuckle boxing, with his most
\nrecent bout coming against Quentin
\nHenry<\/a> in February 2021.<\/p>\n

Akiyama is now scheduled to close his career against the man who
\nhanded him his first UFC defeat.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

Yoshihiro
\nAkiyama<\/a>\u2019s retirement fight will be against Chris Leben<\/a>
\nat BLACK COMBAT 17: VANTABLACK on November 21.
\nhttps:\/\/t.co\/VrW3PwxuXI<\/p>\n

\u2014 COMBAT SPORTS TODAY (@CSTodayNews)
\nOctober 7, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/center> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chris Leben is set to return to mixed martial arts nearly 13 years after his last Ultimate Fighting Championship appearance. Black Combat announced Wednesday that Leben will face Yoshihiro Akiyama at its Black Combat 17: Vantablack event on Nov. 21 at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, South Korea. The bout will serve as Akiyama\u2019s retirement […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40941,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}