Leites rebounded from a two fight losing streak that got him cut from the UFC by defeating Lister in what turned out to be a lackluster affair. Leites was the more aggressive fighter in the contest, and landed many more strikes standing, and on the ground. Ironically Lister seemed to have the same gameplan against Leites that Leites tried to utilize against Anderson Silva.

In the co-main event of the evening Jason MacDonald earned a controversial split decision over Solomon Hutcherson. The decision was not controversial in that the fight was close, but rather the ringside judges initially miscalculated the scores and the fight was announced as a draw, but between fights their error was corrected. MacDonald controlled most of the fight, and attempted several different submissions including arm triangles, triangles, rear naked chokes, and arm bars to earn the victory.

Earlier in the evening Ryan Jimmo edged Emanuel Lewis in a contest that resembled Brandon Vera vs. Randy Couture, only with more strikes, Bryan Baker defeated Art Santore in an exciting fight, that saw Santore’s face well bloodied on several occasions, and Dwayne Lewis stopped Marvin Eastman with a solid upper cut just before the first round bell, but threw several more punches to the downed Eastman even after the referee intervened.

Full results for MFC 23 were:

• Thales Leites def. Dean Lister via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Jason MacDonald def. Solomon Hutcherson via split decision (29-28, 29-28, 28-29)
• Ryan Jimmo def. Emanuel Newton via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
• Bryan Baker def. Art Santore via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 29-28)
• Dwayne Lewis def. Marvin Eastman via KO (punch) — 4:58 Round 1
• Jesse Juarez def. Joe Christopher via Unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Nick Penner def. Ryan Fortin via submission (rear naked choke) — 3:31 Round 2
• Ryan Machan def. Kajan Johnson via submission (rear naked choke) — 3:30 Round 1
• Billy Hua def. Kenny Hamilton via TKO (punches) — 0:20 Round 2

Pictured: Thales Leites

MFC 23 is set to take place tonight at the River Cree Resort and Casino, and will air live on HDNet beginning at 10pm ET.

Full weigh-in results were:

MAIN CARD (televised)

• Thales Leites (185.5) vs. Dean Lister (185)
• Jason MacDonald (185.5) vs. Solomon Hutcherson (184)
• Ryan Jimmo (205) vs. Emanuel Newton (204.5)
• Bryan Baker (183.5) vs. Art Santore (185.5)
• Marvin Eastman (203) vs. Dwayne Lewis (205)
• Joe Christopher (171) vs. Jesse Juarez (170.5)

PRELIMINARY CARD (untelevised)

• Ryan Fortin (250) vs. Nick Penner (227)
• Ryan Machan (156) vs. Kajan Johnson (154.5)
• Kenny Hamilton (155) vs. Billy Hau (154.5)

If you can’t catch the action tonight on HDNet, check back at MMAFrenzy.com tomorrow for full event results.

Full fight cards for all three events are below.

MFC 23: Unstoppable

• Dean Lister vs. Thales Leites
• Jason MacDonald vs. Solomon Hutcherson
• Bryan Baker vs. Art Santore
• Ryan Jimmo vs. Emanuel Newton
• Marvin Eastman vs. Dwayne Lewis
• Jesse Juarez vs. Joe Christopher
• Ryan Fortin vs. Nick Penner *
• Ryan Machan vs. Kajan Johnson *

*Unbroadcasted preliminaries.

Bitetti Combat 5

• Pedro Rizzo vs. Valentin Overeem
• Murilo “Ninja” Rua vs. Jason Jones
• Fábio Maldonado vs. Travis Wiuff
• Gustavo Ximu vs. Ricco Washington
• Glover Teixeira vs. Jeff Monson
• Eduardo Pamplona vs. Tommy Speer
• Alessandro “Alemão” Steffen vs. Francimar Bodão

Shark Fights 7

• Trevor Prangley vs. Marcus “Money” Sursa
• Liam McCarty vs. Tony Castillo
• Steven “The Hooligan” Ray vs. Kyle Bracey
• Brandi Hainey vs. Yadira “Ya Ya” Anzaldua
• William Tyler Dodson vs. Jared Lopez
• Chris Cruz vs. Eric Rodriguez
• Severo Padilla vs. Anselmo Luis Luna Jr
• Allen Chase Watson vs. Josh “The Lunatic” Luna

Pictured: Thales Leites

“The move was required when Prangley violated his contract by signing with two smaller organizations while under contract with the MFC,” read a statement announcing the move. “Prangley’s management was informed of the violation after the first offense, but Prangley agreed to fight again outside of the MFC in blatant disregard of his signed exclusive contact.”

Prangley spoke with MMA Weekly about his release, saying he sought permission from the organization for the bouts but received no response and was only taking them because he was unable to make enough money fighting only for MFC.

In other MFC news, the promotion announced last week that UFC veterans Thales Leites and Dean Lister will square off in the main event of MFC 23 on December 4 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Pictured: Thales Leites

Travis Lutter

A middleweight matchup featuring UFC veterans Travis Lutter and Dean Lister will headline Maximum Fighting Championship 21 “Hard Knocks,” which is slated to take place on May 15th at the River Cree Resort and Casino in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

MFC promoter Mark Pavelich announced the bout in an appearance on “Carson’s Corner” earlier this week.

Lutter (9-5), the winner of the middleweight tournament on The Ultimate Fighter 4, famoulsy missed weight for his title bout against Anderson Silva at UFC 67 in early-2007. With the title no longer up for grabs, Lutter was defeated by Silva via second-round submission. He reuturned to the octagon over a year later at UFC 83 last April, losing to Rich Franklin via second-round TKO. Lutter was released by the UFC following the back-to-back losses and has not fought since.

Lister (11-6), regarded as one of the top grapplers in the world, compiled a 4-2 record in the UFC between 2006 and 2008 that included victories over Jeremy Horn and Alessio Sakara. After losing a unanimous decision to Yushin Okami at UFC 92 in December Lister requested and was granted his release by the UFC.

For the latest MMA news check out the MMAFrenzy.com news category.

Dean Lister

Former UFC middleweight Dean Lister, who was granted his release from the promotion after dropping a snooze-fest to Yushin Okami at UFC 92, has apparently issued what one might call an “apology” via The Underground for his “piss poor performance.” Check out the front hand:

“…I had a very poor performance my last fight…I let my team and my gym, my friends and definitely myself down for this fight…I had a much better showing against Arona (even though that was only primarily a grappling fight that I lost) even in Pride who is a better fighter than Okami for sure. Things just didnt come together for me this fight. I trained so, so hard, I really trained hard but it didnt work out.”

And the back hand:

“I expect a few weak and mean tempered responses to my thread here, that is OK, I expect this thing from young whack offs who have no (zero) life experience….All I can say is in late 90s I was mediocre at best in BJJ, but with some patience, I became world champion in ADCC Absolute WORLD CHAMP IN MOTHA F***** BRAZIL!!!!!!!!!… For those who really, really, really hate me and have the balls to come tell me to my face, I am very curious to meet you and to compare your superior style, technique and work ethic, even though I had a piss poor performance in UFC, i’m still in good shape. let me know if you want to “teach me a few MMA moves” cause I really need the help and i’m an eager student.”

I can’t help but compare Lister’s sentiment to a combination of Tim Sylvia’s infamous pleadings for acceptance and War Machine’s epic rants about how he is the most awesome person in the universe. At any rate, I encourage all of you to read the rest of the post where Lister provides his training address and offers any would-be instructors a post-workout Guinness. Hey, at least it’s a Guinness and not one of the dreaded brews that sponsor the UFC.

Added to the pay-per-view televised main card are bouts featuring The Ultimate Fighter 7 Finalist CB Dollaway against Mike Massenzio and heavyweight contender Cheick Kongo against UFC newcomer Mustapha Al-Turk.

Matt Hamill vs. Reese Andy, Yushin Okami vs. Dean Lister, Ryo Chonan vs. Brad Blackburn, Antoni Hardonk vs. Mark Burch, and Dan Evensen vs. Pat Berry were all announced for the unaired preliminary card.

For more UFC rumors check out the MMAFrenzy.com MMA rumors section.

Okami was to square off with UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva for the 185-pound title in the main event of UFC 90 in October but was knocked out of the bout due to a broken hand and was replaced by Patrick Cote. With his hand now healed he’ll return to the cage in December and will look to keep his immediate title aspirations alive against Lister. Okami, who holds a DQ victory over Silva, is 7-1 in the UFC, losing his lone bout to Rich Franklin in June 2007 before rebounding for back-to-back wins over Jason MacDonald and Evan Tanner.

Lister, a former King of the Cage champion, is 4-1 in the UFC, losing to Nate Marquardt while earning victories over Alessio Sakara, Yuki Sasaki, Jordan Radev, and most-recently Jeremy Horn. He was to take on Thales Leites at UFC Fight Night 15 earlier this month but was forced to withdraw from the matchup after suffering a minor knee injury.

The middleweight matchup is slated for the UFC 92 main card, which is headlined by UFC interim heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira versus former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir.

For more on UFC 92 check out the MMAFrenzy.com MMA rumors section.

UFC Fight Night 15 will air on Spike TV immediately before the debut episode of “The Ultimate Fighter 8″ featuring interim UFC heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and former UFC champion Frank Mir as the coaches of a cast of aspiring lightweight and light heavyweight fighters. Additional bouts set for the event include Nate Diaz vs. Josh Neer, Clay Guida vs. Mac Danzig, and Houston Alexander vs. Eric Schafer.

Lister (11-5) has won four of his five bouts inside the octagon including back-to-back wins over Jordan Radev and Jeremy Horn. His lone loss was an early-2007 split decision defeat to Nate Marquardt.

Leites (13-1) entered the UFC with an undefeated 9-0 record but was defeated by Martin Kampmann in his debut in late-2006. Leites bounced back to win his next four-straight bouts over Pete Sell, Floyd Sword, Ryan Jensen, and, most-recently, Nate Marquardt. His split decision win over Marquardt at UFC 85 in June was aided by two point deductions from Marquardt for kneeing the head of a downed opponent and striking the back of the head.

Stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.com for the latest UFC news and UFC rumors.

UPDATE: The tentatively scheduled bout between Dean Lister and Thales Leites has been postponed after Lister suffered a minor knee injury while preparing for the fight.

The event’s top payout went to “The Ultimate Fighter” 1 winner Diego Sanchez, who earned $70,000 for his third-round technical knockout of Luigi Fioravanti. “The Ultimate Fighter” 7 winner Amir Sadollah was paid $16,000 for his finals victory over CB Dollaway, “The Ultimate Fighter” 3 winner Kendall Grove took home $32,000 for his main event split decision win over Evan Tanner, and Tanner, a former UFC champion, earned $25,000 in the loss.

The official salaries reported to the athletic commission do not include bonuses, sponsorships, or fees.

In addition to the salaries reported below, Dustin Hazelett took home an additional $40,000 for “Submission of the Night” and “Fight of the Night” with his second-round armbar submission of Josh Burkman, Burkman was awarded $20,000 for his loss in the “Fight of the Night” against Hazelett, and Drew McFedries earned an additional $20,000 for his “Knockout of the Night” first-round knockout of Marvin Eastman.

Continue reading for the official The Ultimate Fighter 7 Finale salaries…

UFC FIGHT NIGHT 14 FIGHTER SALARIES

Kendall Grove def. Evan Tanner

• Grove — $32,000 ($16,000 to show, $16,000 to win)
• Tanner — $25,000

Amir Sadollah def. CB Dollaway

• Sadollah — $16,000 ($8,000to show, $8,000 to win)
• Dollaway — $8,000

Diego Sanchez def. Luigi Fioravanti

• Diego Sanchez — $70,000 ($35,000 to show, $35,000 to win)
• Fioravanti — $10,000

Spencer Fisher def. Jeremy Stephens

• Fisher — $36,000 ($18,000 to show, $18,000 to win)
• Stephens — $8,000

Matt Riddle def. Dante Rivera

• Riddle — $16,000 ($8,000 to show, $8,000 to win)
• Rivera — $8,000

Dustin Hazelett def. Josh Burkman

• Hazelett — $24,000 ($12,000 to show, $12,000 to win)
• Burkman — $10,000

Drew McFedries def. Marvin Eastman

• McFedries — $26,000 ($13,000 to show, $13,000 to win)
• Eastman — $9,000

Matt Brown def. Matt Arroyo

• Brown — $16,000 ($8,000 to show, $8,000 to win)
• Arroyo — $8,000

Dean Lister def. Jeremy Horn

• Lister — $28,000 ($14,000 to show, $14,000 to win)
• Horn — $25,000

Tim Credeur vs. Cale Yarbrough – CANCELLED

• Credeur — $8,000
• Yarbrough — $8,000

Rob Kimmons def. Rob Yundt

• Kimmons — $6,000 ($3,000 to show, $3,000 to win)
• Yundt — $5,000

The scheduled preliminary bout between Tim Credeur and  Cale Yarbrough was cancelled after Credeur tested positive for Adderall in a pre-fight drug test. Because Credeur alerted the NSAC of his use of the prescription drug no disciplinary action was taken and both fighters received their $8,000 base pay. For more on the situation click here.

The total official fighter payroll for the event was $402,000.

For complete results from The Ultimate Fighter 7 Finale click here.