Anderson Silva vs. Thales Leites To Headline UFC 97 on April 17th in Montreal
Anderson Silva Retains Title at UFC 90
The UFC will return to Montreal, Canada on April 18th as Anderson Silva defends his middleweight title against Thales Leites in the evening’s main event.
The event will be the promotion’s second-ever in Canada following the extremely successful UFC 83, which took place this past April and featured Georges St-Pierre vs. Matt Serra. 21,390 fans packed the Bell Centre in downtown Montreal, generating a $5.1 million live gate.
Among the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world, Silva (23-4) is undefeated inside the octagon, winning a record-tying eight-straight bouts in the UFC. “The Spider” recently ventured up to the 205-pound light heavyweight division, knocking out James Irvin in one-minute in July before dropping back to 185-pounds to successfully defend his title over Patrick Cote in October.
A fellow Brazilian, Leites has won five-straight in the UFC and 13 of 14 professional fights. Leites followed up a controversial victory over Nate Marquardt with a first-round submission of Drew McFedries in October.
Tags: Anderson Silva, Thales Leites
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ready to discuss when you are Gun ha
Joe Silva and Dana White continue to spoonfeed Anderson Silva with low-grade opponents. Good fighters, sure, but legitimate #1 contender status?.. no way, Jose.
Who is left in the division for him to face? Come on man, Spoon fed my a$$. He has to fight someone.
dude who else is there at middleweight….? no one
winner of yushin okami and dean lister
Dude i know thales leites, he is a jiu jitsu black belt and really has a chance to challenge silva, another opponent would have been demian maia, but i guess he will be after. still silva will win…
Okami should get a crack at Anderson before Leites and Leites and Damian Maia should fight each other giving the winner of that fight #1 contender status. Okami is being bypassed here and it doesn’t make any sense. Even Michael Bisping should be up there before Leites.
Maybe Okami didn’t take or wasn’t able to take the fight.
sent u an email
remember gents/ladies(?) that Okami broke his hand then went through rehab and signed to fight Lister, in this time period Silva has been fighting whomever they put infront of him…Bisbing shouldnt be in the title shot conversation (this goes for u too JohnBoy).. Leites probably shouldnt be fighting rightnow but the time line works out (if) Okami beats Lister, and Silva beats Lietes then they should be on the time line for Silva Okami II
and honestly im confused by people a few days ago saying how Silva should just fight now that he has a fight people are stating the opponent isnt good enough, i dunno what to make of it but whatever cheers
Leites will get destroyed, no way im spending 40 bucks on this junk come on Dana, didnt you learn anything from Silva vs. Cote?!
You will spend the money, we all will.
saaaweeet… being at the last one was incredible.. i look forward to this one
In my opinion, Marquardt is far more deserving of a title shot than Leites. I mean, come on, Marquardt was deducted two points against Leites and it was *still* a close decision. He’s steamrolling through opponents at the moment. Hopefully he’ll soon get another shot at the title.
“*still* a close decision” that went to the other guy, AKA Leites, AKA the guy that actually won the fight.
not only was it close, but it was a split decision even with the two infractions. That means Marquardt was 10-8′ing the piss out of Leites. that means Leites obviously won the fight but Marquardt obvioulsy was the better fighter. When looking at who should be the #1 contender, I would go off of the latter
A W is a W, and an L is an L. Marquardt broke the rules, so he lost points, that’s his fault. If he can’t win without breaking the rules, then he doesn’t need to win, if he doesn’t win, he doesn’t get number 1 contender. To sit here and say “Marquardt should be the number one contender because he would have won the fight if it wasn’t for the two points he got taken away” is like saying “So and so team should be in the superbowl because they would have one the game if it wasn’t for the two penalties they got on this touch down play and that touchdown play.”
won* d’oh.
The second infraction was a terrible call and even Herb Dean admitted it. Without that second infraction Marquardt wins the fight. This isnt the NFL, you dont make the playoffs solely based on record. There are subjective elements at play here. The most important being that Nate Marquardt put up two 10-8 rounds in a 3 round fight. That is complete and utter domination. If you don’t think that needs to play into the decision of #1 contender, if you think it only comes down to the W’s and the L’s as you clearly made mention to, then I say shame on you.
I think the value of one win, versus the value of another win needs to be subjective, but it still needs to be a win.
Leites wasn’t the same after he got the initial illegal knee to the face and i was very surprised they didn’t stop the fight right then. Lietes was working Marquardt and even scored a knockdown in the first round. Marquardt is a beast, and the second penalty was an awful call, but the initial penalty was enough to give the match to Leites IMO
well said bfree…I don’t know what fight Jerod was watching…but the one I saw had Lietes in control of the fight after knocking Marquardt down early. The illegal knee should have resulted in a DQ immediately, but amazingly Leites (showing serious heart) continued though he clearly wasn’t the same fighter. It may be a bit early for him to face silva…but he’s a legit force on the ground in the MW division & probably would handle marquardt more cleanly in a rematch without the dirty tactics.
I foresee an easy win for Anderson in this one. I agree that he should be fighting Okami, but Okami has to get past Lister. If Okami beats Lister, I think he has a real legitimate claim to be next after Leites. I think that the UFC is pulling for Lister to knock off Okami so they don’t have to put him up against Silva, and they can put Lister against Maia for the next shot.
lister in title contention BWWAAAAARRRRFFFF. thats me barfing at that idea. and interestingly enough marquardt beat lister so yea. if its got to b maia vs anyone it should b marquardt or kang anyone whos not “chudly doolittle” dean lister
they better stack this card if that’s gonna be the headliner..
Anderson Silva should be turning down these stupid fights , Accepting these can fight is a joke , Leites only beat Marquardt because Marquardt had 3 point deductions , Marquadt won 2 of 3 rounds verus Leites and this is who you put up against Anderson Silva. Wow Joe Silva must be taking his job as a joke , lets grab a list of middle weights ,close my eye and pick one for Silva. There are like 5 guys in that division that deserves a title shot more then Leites the UFC is F..ed up they have no legitimate reasons for picking a person for a title shot , Just cause it looks good on paper as a match doesn’t mean they deserve a title shot. Thats like a child put a toy because its shiney… come on grow up and stop making your middle weight and heavy weight division look like a joke
We’ve been over this whole who should be fighting Silva thing before. Almost all of the people that are ahead of Leites on the list are fighting between now and then against people not named Anderson Silva, in fights that already had contracts signed/in the works.
My apologies…no habla mma…
seriously…what leites/marquardt fight were you watching? Leites knocked him down in the first & was clearly in control of the fight until an illegal knee by marquardt didn’t result in what should have been an obvious DQ. Leites showed alot of heart to continue but clearly wasn’t the same fighter. Go back and watch it again…take away the dirty tactics & Marquardt wouldn’t have won the 2nd and 3rd rounds…he was clearly being soundly beaten prior to
no fuking way bullllll shiiiiit man
I just hope Silva is still a little pissy after his last showing and brings it to Leites. I don’t know why people are saying Leites doesn’t deserve the shot, 5 fight win streak and 13 of 14. Plus Silva has already beat Marquardt badly, beat Okami by DQ (want to see the rematch bad on this one, but Okami is already fighting). I just want to see Silva fight tough opponents and destroy them. Okami needs the next shot, then bring on Maia, Bisping, and his last 2 fights, rematches between Marquardt and Cote. Then he can retire with his title, complete destruction of the MW division, and pound-for-pound the best fighter in the world. IMO
Dudes, you guys are totally under estimating thales leites. He dropped marquardt and completely owned mcfredries. Not that mcfredries is awesome or anything but he’s tough and i mean he OWNED HIM. Leites is a smart striker, not too aggressive and will take silva down and submit him. I’m calling it. Leites’s style is bad for anderson silva cuz leites won’t be stupid and try to stand with silva.
Holy Hannah, I finally agree with Jazzkok!! Must be the Holiday cheer or something!
We’ll not the submitting Silva, but by being a tough fighter. I’m calling Silva by TKO 2nd round 3rd minute.
leites is a boring fighter everyone in the division wants to prove that silva has a weakness in his standup so every person is just going to stand there and kick punch kicked or knee’d. and there is no way that leites will get a take down
i’m not sure Leites is ready to beat silva…but I agree that he is way underestimated. He may have the best ground skills in the division & if it goes there…watch out! Not only did he destroy mcfredries…but appeared to be completely in control of marquardt before the illegal knee as well. Considering everyone else already has fights booked…this seems like a legit fight & no easy win…Silva better come out more focused than he was against cote.
haha As soon as I read the post, I looked to see how many comments were here, when it said 23 I thought this is gonna be grusem! lol
It is a little poor by UFC to do this.
Anyway,…
Merry Christmas guys. I hope you all have a good one and I hope that 2009 is a real good and healthy one for you all and your families.
Ryan M
Thank you and the same back to you Ryan M cheers…
Thanks, and Merry Christmas to you as well. Happy New year, all that stuff.
Not excited about this one at all . Time to pay Cung le a bunch of dough and him and silva can have a real fight .
Cung Lee has it too easy. Never gonna happen. Given schedule, injuries blah blah blah, Silva has to fight someone. Not many people understanding that. That said, I think it will end in the first. That jerks gonna win again
Cung Le v Silva would be exciting and I actually believe the easiest way for Silva to win is to take it to the ground, not saying that I don’t think Anderson can win the stand up but com’on u have a BJJ Blackbelt vs an Amatuer wrestler when it goes to the ground that’s just simple science imo… We all know that Dana White likes StrikeForce and really like Cung Le but as SurfingK5 stated with his schedule and movie making and Silva perhaps retiring in 4 fights the likely hood that the fight will happen is slim.. Also Cung has yet to defend his StrikeForce title which too is kinda odd atleast Silva defended his Cage Rage title once (I believe) before headed to the big show aka the UFC
Cung Le aint no spring chicken either…I’m not gonna hold my breath for him to do anything significant for mma. It’s a shame too, the guys a great athlete.
Definetely would be an interesting match up.
Leites is fine… why should Okami get the nod to fight silva over leites??!?! Because he was the last guy to score a W vs silva?! Ha.. illeagal upkick…thats it…not like he beat Silva .. won by default…
I say these 2 fight, then Maia and Bisping fight (even though it will be Bisping and hendo/franklin) and then that winner faces…technically.. silva… I think the only guy out there now in his class that gives the spider a run for the belt is Maia…after that, no one really stands a chance…but you never know…someone could Matt Serra him in any fight!
Awwwwwww THE SERRA EFFECT don’t get em started on that now
Hey, that’s what we were worried about with Cote.
I said don’t get me started Justin haha
I think the only guys with good shots at Anderson is Henderson / Maia real shots at beating him with there skill set. Maia’s BJJ owns but can he even touch Silva to take him down, Henderson has the other problem he can with stand Silva’s striking until he can get in for the takedown, problem here is Andersons BJJ and Hendersons lack of. Both Fights are a 60/40 in Silva’s favor at the ever least. Maia wins by Submission / Henderson by decision or maybe GNP { highly unlikely }. Okami / Leites / Bisping / Marquardt all lack a skill set far superior to Silva’s which is way I think Silva wins
Especially because he’s already submitted Henderson already?
dont count out leites ufcmanz, leites had great bjj not as good as maia but its good enough that he could possibly sub anderson, do i think thats gonna happen …….no becuase leites will probably try to sand with silva and get continuous anderson silva sledgehammers down his throat ……plus the big factor for this fight is anderson knows alot olf people hated his last performance which means he will be looking for a great showing this time around and a very destructive performance at that…..i say anderson by first round tko……..to the other contenders ufcmanz you forgot lister alot of people are over looking dean but guess what okami hasnt fought in a while and dean lister is top ten in the ufc mdw division and his ground skills are spectacular only overshadowed by maia’s…if lister gets past okami look for lister to fight in a #1 contenders match next…..lister has the sub skills to get anderson to the ground and to sub him….theres only three people with better bjj than anderson- maia,lister and palarahaes(spelled wrong i know)……but anyways look out for lister one loss in the ufc and that was a razor thin split loss to marquardt which i thought dean won……also anytime FR im ready for discussion!
I fancy an upset here something tells me the pressure bestowed on him by Dana and his ego might be getting the better of him in the Cote fight he looked like a man that is not invincible in a awful division more of someone believing the hype.
Leites is no joke as previously mentioned he was in control of the Marquart fight before that illegal knee.
I’m bravely predicting a early Sub for Leites.
He has to fight someone until Kang is ready. That is the fight the UFC is gearing up for imo.
1 st Happy Holidays to all my fellow Mma followers-this is the best show on earth-Ok I’m truely a believer tht Silva will dismantel Lietes,i dnt see how he can win,for him to submit the Spider he has to get close & take him to the ground,plus look at his camp(Silva’s-w big nog,etc)-is there something he can bring that Silva hasn’t seen-i think not-best chances to dethron Silva lay in Hendo & Marquart,but a bout vs Okami/Maia is greatly admired,for these guys aren’t already mentally Tko”d b4 they even fight him-plus after his Dance contest w cote,its time he gets back to fighting-Silva Tko 2min++ of 2nd round/only cause he wanted to see wht leites would bring to the table, if not it would easely be in the 1st
okami has to get past dean lister first!….i swear if i see one more post that mentions how yushin okami vs silva is a good fight im gonna go crazy…..dean lister ccan and probably will beat yushin okami!…i swear its like most of the mma community has no idea who dean lister is……and am i the only one who thinks silva/okami 2 wont live up to the hype and silva will just end up dismantiling okami as okami is a standup fighter who has gotten rocked from shots ten times weaker than anderson silvas…..but everyone just watch this weekend and youll be surprised when you check the results and see it say lister subs okami
I won’t be that surprised. The only reason I’ve said that Okami deserves shot, and I have said it, is that he has beaten everyone the UFC put in front of him except Rich Franklin, which went to a decision. He’s 6-1 in the UFC on a two fight win streak, and holds a win over A. Silva (albeit by a DQ). If Okami does in fact beat Lister, he’ll hold wins over Mike Swick (via sending him down a weight class), Jason MacDonald, Alan Belcher, the late Evan Tanner, and obviously Dean Lister. Belcher, IMO is the only opponent of questionable quality in that lot. That says more than a points victory due to illegal strikes over Marquardt, a win over Drew McFedries, Ryan Jensen, Pete Sell, and Floyd Sword (who?).
WHAT IS WRONG WITH DANA? IS HE ****ING RETARDED? This guy Leites does not deserve a title shot. I don’t put him in the top 10. If Silva plans on retiring soon I want to see him fight the best so there is no question about who was the best ever pound for pound. The best fight for him is 1Marquardt again, 2Gouveia 3Maia, 4Okami 5 Bisbing. To be the best ever he really should step up and fight a couple legit 205 pounders of a Forrest Griffin, Rashad Evans, Lyoto Machida Caliber. Then He could Retire and could be named the best pound for pound fighter of his time. Fighting a guy like Leites or Cote is just a stupid and horrible matchup I am disgusted. Give him good a 205 pounder damn it!
Seriously??? Read the arguements above please…we’ve beat this horse.
I recently heard there may be a new fight scheduled for Silva…
SILVA VS SURFINGK5
Surfingk5 claims to have solved the enigma that is…ANDERSON the Arachnid SILVA…Surfingk5 will use his cat like reflexes and superior strength to sacrifice his body for kicks from the Arachnid…the kicks or knees will be fully obsorbed by Surfing’s BALLS…Surfing is committed to these blocking tactics until the Arachnid is DQ’d and Surfingk5 secures a W and the belt.
It is also reported that Surfingk5 has no other contractual obligations at this time…is not committed to any “big screen” obligations and is not being led around by his c***k by a porn star. However, reports also indicate that Surfingk5 is will to negotiate any of the priors in order to avoid mui tai kicks to his balls.
Now, having said that…youngsters, I’d like to point out that this post is almost at 9am mountain time…MY time and not before 8am…wise asses
haha, is that bit at the end in reference to previous comments that you get up too early?
Also, I would like to say, because I don’t think it’s been said enough yet…
Why is Anderson Silva fighting Thales Leites, he should be fighting a real opponent. He should have fought Paulo Filho before he went off the deep end, or he should step up to LHW and fight Machida. I also think its dumb that BJ Penn is fighting GSP, GSP should be fighting Silva instead, I guarantee he would dethrone him, but poor GSP would then be dethroned by Michael The Count Bisping, AKA the baddest fighter alive, no one can beat The Count!!!11 Dana White is an idiot, I can’t believe he keeps giving us these crappy fights! Also, he should get over his self and co-promote, that way we can see Fedor fight Brock, and put that over hyped WWE star that never should have gotten a title shot in his place, and so that Cung Le can show that he’s the best ever, except for Bisping who would beat him easily. I think Kimbo should fight Brock!!11!1
Hopefully I covered all of the dead horses and idiotic comments for the trolls and drive-bys…..
Yes, yes it was. You are very perceptive. Also, thanks for continuing to abuse the horse. Some…one, is going to read that, think you are serious and we end up feeding the vicious cycle. WAY TO GO JUSTIN!!! You just gave mouth to mouth to the horse!
i am j/k of course you know Justin, lol
This is the first post I F~ing read this morning and I gotta see this shhhit WTF not that I’m angry but damn man you covered all the whinny little bitttch points that people throw out there
@Ballsguy,ok where to start??? Hmmm well I can read through the comments already made like SurfingK5 stated, you can perhaps realize that Dana White isn’t the UFC matchmaker Joe Silva is… Anderson Silva has already beaten Nate Marquardt and with realitive ease Gouveua being #2 on your list well ehh no (but that’s just my opionion) also Anderson Silva is the MW champ and isn’t obligated to fight @ LHW by any means, for the rest I refer you to read posts by SurfingK5, Justin, or Gun because I’m not going to deal with this much more on this wonderful day
Sorry guys, I had to do it, bigballa making his comment, which was the third or fourth one that said basically the same thing in this thread was very frustrating, I had to vent.
I think Fedor just
broke his handgot a mysterious hand injuryjerkin’ his gherkiner…rubbin’ one outer… training.By all means do what it is you do Justin, you tend to be nicer about it anyways
Yes i cant wait for this fight.
Most of silva’s loses are by submission and now we get to see how he will do against a top jiu jutsu player(leites).
ha; leites was supossed to fight goran reljic at ufc 90 but reljic got injured so leites go a much easy opponent named drew.goran reljic is undeafeated at 8-0-0 and would of destroyed leites if he did not get injured and goran would be fighting anderson.and that would be a much better fight then thales vs anderson because goran is undefeated and very tough.dana should of waited for goran to recover from his injury and then make goran fight thales in a nuber 1 contender match.
i really think they should have a 4 man elimation tournament for the title with the 4 fighters being
goran reljic
damian mai
michael bisping
thales leites
the winners of the first 2 fights would face eachother.the winner of that last match fights the spider for the title.thats how the ufc would find the right man for the job of beating silva.
Wow, no mention of Marquardt or Hendo…at least you’re being original there…but my goodness leave this poor horse alone.
i forgot that reljic dropped to mw now anderson vs him would b a good fight stylisticly
hendo and nate had there chance and they blew it.these 4 guys i posted have not had a chance and they need one.
Leites is getting his chance in April.
Reljic has yet to fight at 185 after stepping down from 205, he needs to fight and win in the lower weight class before he gets put into the conversation.
Maia is certainly making a case for his position next in line with his fights, but he himself said he is not ready for that just yet.
Bisping is not ready, and hasn’t proved himself. He hasn’t beaten a top 185er yet, Leben is only a gatekeeper. If Bisping beats his opposing coach from TUF, then he’ll be ready/deserving.
i won’t be going to see this one, pretty dissapointing main event, i love silva but cmon give us one of our own
also the winner of the yushin okami vs dean lister fight at ufc 92 could be a good contender.
THANK YOU CARL,…….DEAN LISTER!…CARL I LOVE YOU MAN IN THE MOST TOTAL NON GAY WAY POSSIBLE!
Have u had too much egg nog today Gun?? Not for you man crush on Lister moreso for the man crush on Carl?? Jk
I’m curious as to why Bisping deserves such high praise from some, he is the gateway to the UK for the UFC but if you look at his list of accomplishments to date he has beaten mediocre fighters at best.
Leben, Day, McCarthy, Sinosic, these are all average fighters who i think were put in front of Bisping to extend his win streak and raise awareness and excitement for MMA in the UK.
I think he has done that job well and more Brits are now known and joining the UFC.
He is a good fighter who can look great against the average joe but his time is running short and in 2009 he will have to face fighters of the elite group to advance.
ya too bad dean lister lost to okami;now lister is not in the picture.
but maybe amir saddolah if he beats catone who is undefeated.
anderson will be knockin thales out very early in the second via flying knee hughes will put serras a$$ in a crusafix like he did bj and beating serra down and franklin with the right plan could beat silva if he chooses to fights as a ground and pounder.
I think that this fight can go either way. Silva obviously has the upperhand on the striking and is capable of holding his own on the ground. But i do think if this fight ends up going to the ground, that will be Leites’ playground and may lead to a sweet submission for Leites.
Reasons for Silva: Silva’s devastating clinch, his tough chin, elusiveness and powerful striking have led to the downfall of many. If the majority of this fight is spent standing, Silva will most likely claim another Knockout.
Reasons for Leites: Since his debut, Thales Leites has displayed how good his Jiu-Jitsu really is, with several decisive submission victories. If Leites doesn’t play into trying to figure Anderson out on the feet and takes Anderson down and keeps it there, I foresee a painful night for the champion and we may finally see a new king crowned at 185.
well now he doesent desevre a shot since he lost to okami.
but i say amir sadollah will deserve a shot if he beats catone who is undefeated
damn sorry i already said that but i dident see it posted.but i think amir would beat that insect called the spider.
reasons
great chin
great submissions
good striker
great at avoideing submissions
stamina
durable
thevince,
Submission victories are usually decisive. Thanks for stating the obvious on that one.
carl,
Many of the comments on this thread have been about Leites not deserving a title shot,and you go and throw out that Amir Sadollah should get a title shot. That’s a bit ridiculous. He may get there one day, but having zero professional fights before going on TUF, and not even having won a fight in the UFC outside of TUF, yet. Is a bit premature to be calling him a world beater and number one contender.
thales leites WHO? what the.. KO 1st round by anderson…