“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

MixedMartialArts.com and MMAjunkie.com confirmed the releases on Friday afternoon:

…according to mixedmartialarts.com, which is co-owned by McCrory’s manager, comments were misinterpreted and McCrory has, in fact, been released from the UFC’s roster. MMAjunkie.com has since confirmed Leites, too, remains released from the organization.

“It seems that the story was not an exact representation of the conversation between White and Iole, but seemingly an honest misinterpretation,” the mixedmartialarts.com report read. “As it stands, McCrory will not have his next fight inside the UFC octagon but has been fielding offers from other organizations and may start to work his way up to the middleweight division.”

SEE ALSO:

• Thales Leites and Tamdan McCrory Back in UFC After Dana White Reverses Cuts
• Thales Leites and George Roop Released by UFC
• Tamdan McCrory Released by UFC, Middleweight Return Likely

Pictured: Tamdan McCrory

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.

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

The latest cuts follow the release of welterweights Tamdan McCrory and Dan Cramer on Wednesday, all of which were in action at Satuday’s UFC 101 event.

Leites (9-1), who won five-straight UFC fights after falling to Martin Kampmann in his UFC debut, was recently dealt back-to-back decision losses to middleweight champ Anderson Silva and Alessio Sakara.

Roop (9-5), a semifinalist on The Ultimate Fighter 8, lost to Shane Nelson at The Ultimate Fighter 8 Finale before rebounding with a split decision victory over Dave Kaplan, but was cut following second-round submission defeat to George Sotiropoulos on Saturday.

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

Pictured: Thales Leites

Dan Cramer has been released by the UFC following a Saturday loss to Matthew Riddle at UFC 101. The UFC.com profiles for Cramer, Thales Leites, George Roop and Danillo Villefort, have all been taken down, fueling speculation that Leites, Roop, and Villefort may have also been cut following their UFC 101 fights.

Pictured: Anderson Silva

After stunning Florian several times over the first three rounds and stifling the challenger’s takedown attempts, Penn got a takedown of his own before taking Florian’s back. After softening him with kicks to the body, Penn secured a rear naked choke and Florian was forced to submit 3:54 into the fourth frame.

Penn (14-5-1) rebounds from a January welterweight loss to champion Georges St-Pierre by winning his fourth-straight fight at 155-pounds, while the loss for Florian (11-4), his first in nearly three-years, snaps a six-fight winning streak.

In the UFC 101 co-headliner, UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva returned to the light heavyweight division and silenced his critics, following up back-to-back lackluster wins with a first-round knckout of former 205-pound champ Forrest Griffin.

After an aggressive start by Griffin that saw him miss with a head kick attempt, Silva tagged Forrest with punches, sending him to the canvas twice, and taunted him to attack, leaving his hands at his waist. As Griffin again pressed forward Silva backpeddled, but connected with a compact right that sent Forrest to the canvas for a third and final time as the referee immediately stepped in and stopped the fight.

Knocked unconscious by the awkward-yet-powerful punch, Griffin quickly returned to his feet and ran out of the Octagon while Silva celebrated his return to form. “The Spider” (25-4) extends his win streak to 11-straight overall, including 10-straight UFC victories, while Griffin (16-6) has now lost two-straight.

In other main card action, Aaron Riley, Ricardo Almeida, and Kurt Pellegrino all picked up unanimous decision wins, while Johny Hendricks knocked out Amir Sadollah in just 29-seconds in a controversial stoppage.

The complete results for UFC 101 were:

• B.J. Penn (c) def. Kenny Florian via submission (rear naked choke) — Round 4, 3:54
  UFC Lightweight Championship
• Anderson Silva def. Forrest Griffin via KO (punch) — Round 1, 3:23
• Aaron Riley def. Shane Nelson via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Johny Hendricks def. Amir Sadollah via TKO (strikes) — Round 1, 0:29
• Ricardo Almeida def. Kendall Grove via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Kurt Pellegrino def. Josh Neer via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• John Howard def. Tamdan McCrory via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
• Alessio Sakara def. Thales Leites via split decision (29-28, 27-30, 29-28)
• Matthew Riddle def. Dan Cramer via unanimous decision (29-27, 30-26, 30-27)
• George Sotiropoulos def. George Roop via submission (kimura) — Round 2, 1:59
• Jesse Lennox def. Danillo Villefort via TKO (cut) — Round 3, 3:37

Click here for more UFC 101 coverage.

The UFC lightweight champion Penn and challenger Florian both tipped the scales exactly at 155 pounds, while UFC middleweight title-holder Anderson Silva and Forrest Griffin both weighed in at 205 for their light heavyweight matchup.

Welterweight Tamdan McCrory was the only fighter who visibly struggled to make weight, arriving at the scale still wearing his sauna suit, but didn’t require the one-pound allowance, weighing in right at the division limit of 170-pounds.

One of the lone surprises at the UFC 101 weigh-ins was The Ultimate Fighter 7 winner Amir Sadollah, who weighed in at just 166.5 pounds for his 170-pound welterweight matchup against Johny Hendricks.

The official weigh-in results for UFC 101 were:

MAIN CARD

• 155: B.J. Penn (c) (155) vs. Kenny Florian (155)
  UFC Lightweight Championship
• 205: Anderson Silva (205) vs. Forrest Griffin (205)
• 185: Kendall Grove (185.5) vs. Ricardo Almeida (185)
• 155: Josh Neer (155.5) vs. Kurt Pellegrino (154.5)
• 170: Amir Sadollah (166.5) vs. Johny Hendricks (171)

PRELIMINARY CARD

• 155: Shane Nelson (156) vs. Aaron Riley (154)
• 170: Tamdan McCrory (170) vs. John Howard (169.5)
• 185: Thales Leites (185) vs. Alessio Sakara (185.5)
• 170: Matthew Riddle (170) vs. Dan Cramer (169.5)
• 155: George Sotiropoulos (155) vs. George Roop (154)
• 170: Jesse Lennox (171) vs. Danillo Villefort (170.25)

Remember: Fighters are granted a one-pound allowance for non-championship bouts.

Pictured: Anderson Silva

Amir Sadollah

The UFC today announced the majority of the fight card for UFC 101: Declaration, which is set for August 8th at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia.

Joining BJ Penn vs. Kenny Florian and Anderson Silva vs. Forrest Griffin on the pay-per-view main card will be Johny Hendricks vs. Amir Sadollah, Ricardo Almeida vs. Kendall Grove, and Josh Neer vs. Kurt Pellgrino.

Shane Nelson vs. Aaron Riley, John Howard vs. Tamdan McCrory, Dan Cramer vs. Matthew Riddle, Rob Emerson vs. George Sotiropoulos, and Jesse Lennox vs. Danillo Villefort were confirmed for the unaired preliminary card.

The only rumored bout that has not yet been officially announced is a middleweight fight between Thales Leites and Alessio Sakara.

Tickets for UFC 101: Declaration will go on sale next week.

Stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.com for the latest UFC 101 news.

Thales Leites

Recent middleweight title challenger Thales Leites has been tapped to replace an injured Rousimar Palhares and square off with Alessio Sakara at UFC 101 on August 8th in Philadelphia.

Leites confirmed the bout to InTheGuard.tv earlier today.

Palhares was forced to withdraw from the 185-pound bout on Saturday after suffering a broken leg during training.

“What is most important is getting back to fighting as soon as possible”, Leites told intheguard.tv, “I know that I didn’t fight well, that things didn’t go as I wanted against Anderson Silva, so nothing is better than starting again. I know that the expectations will be enormous, because now I need to show that I deserve another shot at the title. But this is good, it will give more motivation.”

Prior to his unanimous decision loss to middleweight champion Anderson Silva in April, Leites (14-2) had won five-straight UFC bouts over Pete Sell, Floyd Sword, Ryan Jensen, Nate Marquardt, and Drew McFedries. His only other career loss came in 2006 to Martin Kampmann in his UFC debut.

Sakara is 4-4 with one no contest in nine bouts inside the octagon. Sakara dropped down to middleweight from light heavyweight following a 3-3 start to his UFC career,  but suffered a first-round TKO to Chris Leben last March at UFC 82 in his debut at the new weight class. In his most recent bout, “Legionarius” earned his first win at 185-pounds with a first-round knockout of Joe Vedepo at UFC Fight Night 15 last July.

For the latest UFC 101 rumors check out the MMAFrenzy.com UFC rumors section.

Anderson Silva

Though Anderson Silva’s alleged greasing went unnoticed by most fans until after the UFC 97 main event, referee Yves Lavigne not only noticed the Vaseline on Silva’s chest and arms but wiped it off and received approval from Leites’ corner before starting the contest.

After several days of speculation, Lavigne confirmed his actions with Sherdog on Tuesday:

“I saw he had a little Vaseline on his chest and I wiped it from his chest and arms, as I saw him touching them as well,” Lavigne told Sherdog.com on Tuesday.

Lavigne said he then motioned to Leites’ corner and was given a “thumbs up” of approval.

“I took care of it, and the other corner felt OK with it,” said Lavigne.

“While I wiped one glove, Silva took the end of the towel and wiped his other glove. He was helping me,” Lavigne said. “Both corners were aware of it and approved [of] it.”

Victor “Shaolin” Ribeiro, who was in Leites’ corner for the UFC 97 headliner, affirmed Lavigne’s recollection of what transpired on Saturday in Montreal:

“I remember Yves Lavigne toweled and cleaned the body. I don’t think [the cutman] put a lot of grease on his face and [Silva] put it on his body. I think everything was pretty fair.”

For more UFC 97 coverage check out the MMAFrenzy.com UFC 97 archive.