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#3 Thales Leites
It’s quite rare in MMA to see fighters go out with a victory – especially in the UFC, which is a promotion that’s been built on the back of ageing fighters losing to up-and-coming stars – but that’s exactly what former Middleweight title challenger Thales Leites managed to do in 2018. The Brazilian decided to hang up his gloves following his September victory over Hector Lombard.
It was a bit of a strange journey for Leites, who debuted in the UFC back in 2006. The submission expert came into the Octagon at 9-0, and after a tight loss to Martin Kampmann in his debut, he managed to put together an impressive 5-fight win streak that put him in line for a shot at Anderson Silva’s Middleweight title.
Leites lost that fight, but it was such a disappointing showing that the UFC chose to release him after a controversial loss to Alessio Sakara a couple of months later. It looked like his career at the top was over, but Leites managed to put together a 6-1 record on the smaller circuit that caused the UFC to bring him back in 2013.
Upon his return, Leites found himself in title contention after winning 5 in a row, but losses in big fights against Michael Bisping and Gegard Mousasi kept him away from the very top of the division. Even at the end, with a handful of losses, Leites didn’t look too far past his best – but concerns about his future health ended up pushing him to retire, a decision which is probably for the best.
