If raw talent won fights, Uriah Hall would be fighting for the belt on Saturday. As a matter of fact, Hall has worn the belt twice as middleweight champion for Ring of Combat before coming to the UFC. However, instead of fighting to be the champ of the biggest combat sports promotion in the world, he is fighting to keep his job in a sport not known for giving third chances. On top of that, he’s fighting against Chris Leben, an unpredictable brawler with just as much to lose. How did it come to this?

Objectively speaking, there is no reason Hall should be in this situation. According to his UFC stats going into the fight, he has a higher KO/TKO percentage than both Chris Weidman and Anderson Silva, and his submission and striking accuracy are on par with both the champ and the number one contender (classify those how you want). On top of that, Hall’s introduction to the UFC audience was the reality show The Ultimate Fighter, where he essentially acted as a gateway to the hospital for his opponents. His knockout kick to Adam Cella’s head was deadly enough to make people in and out of the house dub him a top contender even before the show ended. After that, in his next fight, he punched Bubba McDaniel so hard that he broke McDaniel’s face in three places. Uriah Hall literally broke a guy’s face. He made it all the way to the finals against team mate Kevin Gastelum, a fighter who by that time seemed more like bait than an opponent to the dominant Hall. But, instead of sending Gastelum to ICU like everyone expected, Hall lost. He said that the reason he lost was because of his friendship and emotions that he got for Gastelum after living and training together, and implied that under other circumstances that would not have happened. So, Hall entered the octagon again, this time with John Howard. If he was friends with Gastelum, he and Howard looked like downright bros. After 3 rounds of some serious high-five action, Hall lost again. Uriah Hall keeps losing fights, and if he loses again, he may be out of a job.

Dana White says he knows why Hall keeps losing. According to White, Hall is not a fighter. He doesn’t have the grit of a fighter. He says Uriah can’t get in there and hurt a guy the way a fighter needs to, and Hall himself even admits as much. He doesn’t want to enter the octagon and kill his opponent. He imagines himself a Bruce Lee styled martial artist who goes into a fight to show his skill and pick his opponents apart piece by piece, and he views the octagon as a stage to demonstrate martial arts mastery and technique. Unfortunately for Hall, he’s the only one who sees things that way.

On December 28, Hall will fight Chris Leben. Leben is not the Shaolin Master that Hall pictures himself as. Also a TUF alumnus, Leben is the kind of guy who will break down a door at the TUF house or urinate on an opponent’s bed while drunk. He is also the kind of guy who will fight in every single “Fight Night” event the UFC has held. Chris Leben will call out Wanderlei Silva and take a fight on 2 weeks’ notice (after having just fought). Even though he may not be as technically skillful as Hall, Leben will enter the ring trying to kill him none the less. In other words, Chris Leben is a fighter.

This UFC 168 prelim fight will be interesting to watch for a bunch of reasons. Who will win the fight? Who will keep their job? But for me the most important reason this fight will be interesting is it will finally answer the question: Who would win in a fight, a martial artist or a fighter?

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