Thales Leites was stunned on Saturday when he heard that judges had come to a split decision in his fight with Alessio Sakara at UFC 101 at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia. He was even more stunned when he came out on the short end of the verdict.
But the really shocking news came on Thursday, when he learned he was being dropped by the Ultimate Fighting Championship only four months after competing for the middleweight title.
It turns out, though, that Leites still has a job with the UFC.
UFC president Dana White wasn’t aware of plans to drop both Leites and welterweight Tamdan McCrory and said he would reverse those decisions.
They won’t be cut, White said Thursday night.
Leites was 14-1 when he faced Anderson Silva for the middleweight title at UFC 97 in April in Montreal. But Leites was not aggressive, often flopping onto his back in an unsuccessful bid to lure Silva into a jiu-jitsu contest, and he lost a unanimous decision in which the crowd booed lustily. He was more aggressive against Sakara, though the crowd in Philadelphia didn’t like the fight and booed very loudly.
McCrory entered the UFC with an 8-0 record but has gone 3-3 since, alternating wins and losses. He dropped a close decision to John Howard on Saturday.
White said both men will be brought back to the UFC.
TheClips - Something about all this seems very odd....
During the postfight press conference someone asked Dana if Leites was in danger of being cut and he said no, so it was kind of surprising that they did cut him. Nice to see they reversed course.
TheClips - Something about all this seems very odd....
yyyyyyyep... Its almost like Dana is reading the message boards to get his advice.
I think he really takes the messages boards seriously. His vlogs for one, showed him checking out the UG. And the quickness in which he learned about how Hendo vs. Franklin 2 was so unpopular are all signs IMo
TheClips - Something about all this seems very odd....
yyyyyyyep... Its almost like Dana is reading the message boards to get his advice.
I think he really takes the messages boards seriously. His vlogs for one, showed him checking out the UG. And the quickness in which he learned about how Hendo vs. Franklin 2 was so unpopular are all signs IMo
I agree. It's good to know that he does seem to work on behalf of the fans sometimes. He certainly doesn't act on every whim here (who can blame him?) but it seems like smart business to give some consideration to fan feedback.
Fuck yeah. I was just hoping on here to bitch about how both of them lost razor thin decisions. I actually had both of them winning the fights they lost.
This is good news. Since Tamdan is a huge welterweight and wants to move up to 185 eventually, I say make a Leites/McCrory fight. Leites would have the ground advantage, but McCrory would have the stand-up advantage. Great fight overall.
i called this last night. as part of a post i created about my theory on Zuffa's recent signings and cuts and the rumours of a UFC-WEC merger.
i can't find the post. i've not yet purchased a blue name. could someone search for my link? i'd appreciate it. even when i posted it i was unable to find it
Da UG is the voice of the hard-core fan. Granted we're probably outnumbered by the noob fan, but at the end of the day we give Dana a much higher % of our money than the 'average fan'. And have for a much longer time. And will continue to do so when if/when the fad is no longer trendy. The same people who supported NHB during the dark years.
I'm often critical of Dana but he's not stupid. He'd be crazy not to keep up with the popular opinion of his core deomographic.
Shit it doesn't stop there; CindyO and others come here to push PR agenda. They use this board as a tool. They'd be crazy not to imo.