MMAVu

Thales Leites has been tabbed to replace the injured Rousimar Palhares, due to a broken tibia during training, to face Italian slugger, Alessio Sakara. You know how pro wrestling has a, “Loser leave Town” matches sometimes? Zuffa has them too, apparently.

One has to believe Leites is just a loss away from being cut, despite winning 5 of 6 bouts prior to his snoozefest against Anderson Silva at UFC 97. Leites blew the biggest opportunity of his career, flopping over like a turtle on his back when he realized he could not take Silva down.

Sakara, on the other hand, is coming off of an impressive head kick TKO of Joe Vedepo. Overall though, he has a 4-4-1 record with the UFC and I still maintain he likely has some incriminating photos of Dana White…possibly with some farm animals, to still be with the UFC. This was a guy who openly discussed taking on Chuck Liddell when Liddell at his peak, and promptly got subbed by Dean Lister. The guy crumbles against the upper tier fighters, and has/had a suspect ground game. We’ll see if he’s improved upon that, in the unofficial, “Loser leave Town” match this August.