Thales Leites and Tamdan McCrory Back in UFC After Dana White Reverses Cuts
Posted by Kris Karkoski on Aug 14, 2009 at 2:54 pm ET16 Comments
Middleweight Thales Leites and welterweight Tamdan McCrory, who were both reportedly released by the UFC following losses last Saturday at UFC 101, will remain on the UFC roster, UFC President Dana White today told Yahoo Sports:
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.
McCrory, who suffered a split decision loss to John Howard at UFC 101, is 3-3 in 6 UFC bouts, while Leites, who unsuccessfully challenged Anderson Silva for the middleweight title in April, dropped a split decision to Alessio Sakara on Saturday.
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Tags: Tamdan McCrory, Thales Leites
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Hey Dana kept his word and is keeping Leites.
Come on Dana. Isn’t it a little late for April Fools?
Yay, the Barn Cat is back. Really enjoy watching that kid fight, and believe he’s got potential.
Incidentally I’ll flip my pet turtle on his back and watch his little arms and legs squirm uselessly in the air if I want to witness Mr. Leites brand of fighting.
Spoken like a true casual fan.
word
I dont know how well he is going to do at MW but good to see mcroryis still around. Leites is in a tough spot right now. That guy needs to figure out his MMA game.
that sounded bad i mean at the UFC level he does
He may do better at MW he had a horrible time with this past cut, 6′4″ is tremendous for a WW so the move up may make him better.
they should fight each other… loser gets gone??? imo
Man i have to say this is good news. Although Leites didn’t do well against A.Silva, the guy is still a decent fighter and it sucked that he went from a title shot-to prelims-to getting cut, i don’t think the guy deserved that.
Awesome news that the Brancat is back, he’s young and could be a force in the 185 division in the future and will be a lot more solid and complete rather than having to cut all that weight,
they were going to cu the Brancat and Leites, but they still keep Keith Jardine???????????????????????????
Barncat and Leites didn’t win fight of the night in their last losses.
If you stop and pretend like the anderson silva fight never happened, then you could make a case for leites being a decent fighter. He choked the s*** out of a dangerous mcfredries and he gave marquardt and “the hitman” war dude. I think he’s better than he’s recently looked and it’s kool to give him a second chance.
As for “the barn cat”, i’m a fan of this guy and i see some potential. He always bring a fight and makes you earn your w. He’s had trouble with jitz dudes and grapplers, but i’m sure he can work that out and move to mw with an improved arsenal of weapons.
I think Leites is a lot better than he looks, the problem he’s having is his recent game-planning is creating uninteresting fights because he tries to not engage heavy strikers and tries to turn it into a grappling match-up rather than an MMA fight. I don’t know if he’s just become afraid to take a lot of shots in his last two fights or what but he needs to get back to the Pre-Anderson fight Leites and be a mixed martial artist rather than a one-sided grappler. It’s like he’s zeroed in on only securing a submission victory or trying to edge out a decision rather than fighting and making something happen. I think his next fight will be the final decision fight.
As for the Barncat… I’m actually disappointed he was brought back. Not because I do not enjoy watching him fight but because if he’s moving up to MW then I’d rather he’d do it outside of the UFC so he can build up a little confidence rather than ending up once chance or your done type deal. I hope he’s ready for the switch because I enjoy watching him fight.
Exactly.It’s funny to hear the casual fan talk chit about Leites because of one fight,a fight against arguably the best striker in mma.And what about Sakara?Why aren’t people calling for HIS head for running away the whole fight against Leites.
They should fight eachother at 185.
I agree. Loser is gone from the UFC and the winner gets a second chance to shine. Although I think the comment made by chrisl is worth considering.