Thales Leites

Thales Leites was born in Rio di Janeiro on September 06, 1981. He is associated with Nova Uniao team and currently fights middle weight for the UFC with his primary technical style as Brazilian jiu-jitsu. His MMA records indicate 14 wins of which 2 were by knockout and 9 were by submission.

In 2003, he made his debut at  Brazilian mma tournament Shooto, and registered his win against Felipe Arinelli by a submission Before making his debut in the United States in Hawaii, he has registered two more wins in Vitoria. In 2005 in Hawaii, he defeated Adam Roland in Rumble on the Rock promotion which marked his fourth consecutive victory.

He fought Gustavo Machado when he returned to Brazil after his successful endeavours in the US. Machado had already record two victories in the Japanese Pancrase Organization. In the third round, he won the fight with Machado by submission after which he was given invitation to  fight in Hawaiian Ronal Jhun to Rumble on the Rock in September. He defeated Jhun by knockout in the second half of the fight even though Jhun was a hometown favorite.

Leites still lacked mainstream exposure even after his successful career and unblemished record. He got his share of limelight when he fought OSami Shubya in MARS promotion in Japan as well as the fight in Jungle Fight Promotion Brazil against Landi-Jons. "He was already famous when I was not even interested," expressed Leites about Landi-Jons when he held lesser experience than his opponents. He scored by unanimous decision against Shibuya and recorded victories against both the fighters after defeating LAndi-Jons with an arm-triangle choke. It led to glorified record of LEites to 9 wins and no losses.

He was expected to make his debut at UFC in September 2006 when was to fight middle weight Nathan Marquardt. Sadly enough, he was not able to do so due to problem with his travel documents. However, he later made his debut at The Ultimate Fighter 4 Finale. He lost by unanimous decision against Danish kickboxer Martin Kampmann.

Later at UFC 69, he recorded his victory against Pete Sell at The Ultimate Fighter 4 contestant. Next we went over to register his next victory at The Ultimate Fighter 5 Finale over Floyd Sword when he defeated him by arm-triangle choke. At UFC 74 he fought Ryan Jensen and defeated him in the first round after his original opponent, Travis Lutter was forced to withdraw from the event. This made his UFC record to 3 wins and one loss.

Lietes broke his arm during the training sessions which forced him to withdraw from the bout agsint Nathan Marquardt at UFC 81. Later he fought him at UFC 85 and won by controversial split decision as a result of deduction in points to Marquardt in round 2 and round 3.

At UFC 90, he recorded his victory against lethal Drew McFedries by rear naked choke submission. This earned hims numero uno contendorship to the UFC middle weight title against the champion Anderson Silva on UFC 97. However, he was later beaten by Silva by unanimous decision in Montreal.