Thales Leites vs. Anderson Silva UFC 97
UFC Middleweight Champion Officially Set to Fight BJJ Expert
Thales Leites' will have to cook up an extraordinary game plan if he plans on beating Anderson Silva in his seventh middleweight title defense in a row.
To beat Silva, Leites will not only need his skills at their sharpest, but he will need Silva to falter as well. Of course, any hope of Leites' that Silva has been resting on his laurels as the heavy favorite would be unfounded.
Silva's Last Six Title Defenses
Silva, 23-4, has been on a war path in the UFC. His first three fights in the UFC were first-round KO's, the third of which was a championship against Rich Franklin. Since then, Silva has successfully defended his title six times against top-notch competition, with three TKO's, two submissions, and one KO. Not one of his fights in the UFC has gone to a decision.
Leites' Road to the Title Match
Thales Leites, 14-1, has had a succeful UFC career, with five wins in his six octagon appearances. He is a pure submission fighter, as nine of his 14 fights have ended by submission. The fighters who Leites has defeated in the UFC is a far cry from Silva's star-studded list of victories. Among his victories, Leites has defeated such notables as Jason Guida, Pete Sell, Ryan Jensen, Drew McFedreis, and Nate Marquardt.
Marquardt is arguably the strongest fighter who Leites has beaten, yet, in reality, Leites won the split decision more by way of Marquardts fouls than his own dominance. In fact, if Herb Dean had not deducted points for the Marquardts fouls, Leites would have likely lost the decision.
In Leites' UFC debut he was defeated by Martin Kampmann. In that fight, Leites showed weak stand-up and takedowns, problems he has improved in the last two-and-a-half years.
Silva's Training for Leites and Interview
Despite the well-known fact that he is stronger than Leites in practically every facet of the game, Silva has nevertheless been training as hard as ever and avoiding the pitfall of a champion who relaxes prior to an "easy win" fight.
"I am doing special training for this fight against Thales," said Silva in an interview in his training facility in Brazil. Silva has been engaged in a taylor-made training regiment designed to target the Leites' specific strengths.
"we may win or lose," said Silva. "But we are doing all our training based on Thales' game," he said. Evidently, Silva hasn't fooled himself into believing he is invincible either.
Leites' Training for Silva and Interview
Leites has split time between Montana and Brazil while training for the upcoming fight. The strongest aspect of Leites' abilities is undoubtedly his jui-jitzu, specifically his ground game and submissions--of his 14 wins, nine were submission.
As odds makers and fight fans agree, beating Silva at this point in his career will be a tall order for Leites. When asked how cofident he is about winning the title from Silva, Leites sucked some air through his teeth, glanced up at the ceiling and said:
"Yeah, this will be a very tough fight, anything can happen inside the cage."
When asked what kind of advantage he has over Silva, Leites admitted there is no advantage and that Silva is a complete fighter.
When the fight is over, one thing is for sure, as Silva said, "No matter who wins, the belt will stay in Brazil."
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