(Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

The bizarre spectacle that fight fans witnessed durning the middleweight championship bout at UFC 97 was, to put it bluntly, an embarrassment to the sport of MMA. What transpired was not a pairing of equals, but rather the result of Joe Silva's astute decision to pit a cat against a mouse. In essence, the five round debacle between Anderson Silva and Thales Leites was nothing more than an attempt by the UFC to cash in on Silva's massive celebrity.

Still, it shouldn't be assumed that Leites is a substandard fighter; his record alone renders claims of inadequacy irrelevant. However, it was readily apparent to all who saw the playful mauling that Silva administered to his less experienced adversary that Leites was simply not ready to compete with the man who has been dubbed by the UFC hype-machine as "the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world." The obvious opponent for Silva to have defended his title against would have been the much maligned Michael Bisping, whose nearly perfect recond in the octagon effectively assured him of a title shot. Yet, rather than allow Silva to fight the number one contender for the middleweight crown, the UFC did what it has always done and protected Bisping from an opponent who could almost certainly have defeated him. From a business standpoint, one cannot fault the UFC for their decision; Bisping is the UFC's marquis name in the United Kingdom and to tarnish his record would, presumably, cause European fight fans to lose interest in a sport that is already dominated by Americans, Brazilians, Russians, and the Japanese. Therefore, with Silva/Bisping title fight doomed from the start, it should have come as no surprise to MMA insiders that Joe Silva and his ilk chose Thales Leites as their sacrificial lamb, no doubt hoping that he would prove more of a challenge for the middleweight champion than Silva's last opponent, the ironically named Patrick "The Predator" Cote. Sadly, much like Cote, Leites was overwhelmed by the mere presence of the champion and mounted no offense whatsoever for the duration of the fight, suffering only superficial injuries from Silva, who somnolently toyed with his prey.

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