UFC 89: Bisping vs. Leben was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) on October 18, 2008 at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham, England. The event was headlined by a middleweight bout between Michael Bisping and Chris Leben. This event aired live in Great Britain and Ireland on Setanta Sports and via tape delay in the United States and Canada on Spike TV. It also aired live via Rogers Sportsnet in Canada. The broadcast peaked with 3.4 million viewers on Spike TV.

Lyoto Machida was scheduled to face fellow undefeated light heavyweight Thiago Silva, but a back injury forced Silva to withdraw from the fight. The fight was rescheduled for UFC 94.

After the event, Chris Leben tested positive for Stanozolol, a banned substance. He was suspended for a period of 9 months and fined one third of his purse. Leben admitted he had used the substance several months prior to the fight, but stated he had assumed it would have been out of his system by then.

All fighters were awarded an extra $40,000.

Christian Cyrus Leben (born July 21, 1980) is an American mixed martial artist currently signed to the Ultimate Fighting Championship where he fights as a middleweight. Leben first appeared in the inaugural season of The Ultimate Fighter reality series. He began his UFC career with five victories in a row before suffering a knockout loss to current champion Anderson Silva. He has won bouts over Wanderlei Silva, Yoshihiro Akiyama, Jorge Santiago, Mike Swick, Jorge Rivera, Patrick Côté, and Alessio Sakara. Leben is currently ranked as the #10 middleweight fighter in the world by MMAWeekly.

Once, visiting his brother at work, Leben noticed an MMA gym located across the street, home to Team Quest. Trainer Robert Follis accepted Leben into the team, and soon Leben was training with Randy Couture, Matt Lindland, Nate Quarry, and Ed Herman. After refining his talent, Leben began fighting as an amateur, achieving a record of 5–0, and capturing the FCFF and UFCF middleweight titles.

After his success in the amateur ranks, Leben turned professional. He won his first five fights, three of them by knockout, and in the process won the Gladiator Challenge, Sportfight, and WEC middleweight titles. Leben achieved wins against Benji Radach, Mike Swick, Jorge Rivera, Edwin Dewees and Patrick Cote, an otherwise perfect record blemished only by a decision loss to Joe Doerksen.

Michael Gavin Joseph Bisping (born 28 February 1979) is an English mixed martial artist. He fights in the middleweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and is the former Cage Warriors Fighting Championship Light Heavyweight Champion, former Cage Rage Light Heavyweight Champion and The Ultimate Fighter 3 Light Heavyweight Tournament winner. As of March 2012, Bisping is ranked the No. 4 middleweight in the world by Sherdog.

Bisping was born in manchester UK in 1979, but moved to Bridlington, East Yorkshire, England when he was a child. Taking an early interest in martial arts, Bisping began training in a traditional form of jiu-jitsu known as Yawara Ryu under Paul Lloyd Davies when he was 8 years old. In 1994, at the age of 15, Bisping competed as an amateur in England's first "no holds barred" competition, a precursor to modern MMA, called Knock Down Sport Budo (KSBO), organised by Davies.

At the age of 18, Bisping decided to abandon his martial arts training in order "to pursue real life". But less than a year later Bisping began training kickboxing and karate on the advice of Alan Clarking, owner of Black Knights gym, who saw potential in the young fighter. Bisping enjoyed a short, but successful kickboxing career, winning the North West Area title and later the Pro British light heavyweight kickboxing title. After again briefly quitting competition in 1998, Bisping returned to kickboxing to take the Pro British light heavyweight title for a second time. Soon after winning his second kickboxing title, Bisping was forced to abandon his full-time training for a "real job". Bisping worked in factories, slaughterhouses, as an upholsterer, a postman, a tiler, a plasterer, a double-glazing door salesman,production line operative making barbecues at Rectella in Clitheroe and also a relatively successful DJ around the north-west club scene.

Dana Ward is a professor of Political Studies at Pitzer College, where he founded and maintains the Anarchy Archives and has taught since 1982. He was the Executive Director of The International Society of Political Psychology from July 1998 to the Fall of 2004. Dana Ward received his BA from University of California, Berkeley, an MA in political science from The University of Chicago, and a double PhD in political science and psychology from Yale University. Ward also serves on the Psychology faculty at the Claremont Graduate University.

Akihiro Gono (郷野聡寛, Gōno Akihiro^?) (born October 7, 1974 in Tokyo) is a retired Japanese mixed martial artist. He is best known for his clever and deceptive fighting style, and for his flashy ring entrances. His fighting style is characterized by skillfully avoiding strikes, using fast counter punches and generally getting the opponent to fight his way. He is only one of two men to beat Bellator Middleweight champion Hector Lombard, and one of three to beat the DREAM Light Heavyweight Champion and former Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion Gegard Mousasi.

Akihiro Gono began fighting mixed martial arts in 1994, beginning with the Lumax Cup: Tournament of Japan '94. He would go on to fight in the Shooto organization, as well as Pancrase. He began fighting in Pride Bushido with Bushido 2 in 2004.

Gono holds wins over such fighters as Gegard Mousasi, Hector Lombard, Yuki Kondo, Ivan Salaverry, Crosley Gracie, Daniel Acacio, and Hayato Sakurai. He has fought many tough opponents, with losses to such fighters as Mauricio Rua, Dan Henderson, Matt Hughes, and Yuki Kondo.