UFC Releases Four Fighters Including Former Middleweight Contender

From www.mmagroundnpound.com:

Just one fight removed from a title shot against Anderson Silva at UFC 97, Thales Leites has been cut by the UFC.

Leites was roundly criticized by the MMA community, and Dana White himself, for his performance against Silva—which included almost as many flops to the canvas as punches thrown.

He was given a fight against Alessio Sakara at last weekend’s UFC 101 to get back on track, but was upset by Sakara in a close and controversial split decision in another lackluster fight.

Leites lost his debut in the UFC against Martin Kampmann at The Ultimate Fighter 4 Finale, but went on to win his next five UFC contests—including victories over Pete Sell, Drew McFedries, and Nate Marquardt to earn the title shot.

The two fight losing streak drops his UFC record to 5-3, and his overall MMA record to 14-3. The Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt will now likely hook on with another organization soon.

Also released by the UFC after UFC 101 were former The Ultimate Fighter cast members George Roop and Dan Cramer. Both fighters lost their fights at UFC 101; Roop to George Sotiropoulos, and Cramer to Matt Riddle.

Finally, the UFC released welterweight prospect Tamdan McCrory following his split decision loss to John Howard at UFC 101 on Saturday. McCrory was a prospect who the UFC had high hopes for given his unusual height and reach for the welterweight division, as well as how far he’d progressed even though he was only 23 years old.

However, his 3-3 UFC record wasn’t good enough to stay in the organization. McCrory will likely fight in smaller promotions and attempt to move up to middleweight, as he has stated that the cut to 170 lbs was becoming increasingly difficult.

He’ll likely be back with the organization in the future.

There are rumors that the UFC has also released welterweight Danillo Villefort, but we haven’t been able to confirm that as of yet. Villefort lost his UFC debut to Jesse Lennox at UFC 101.