With the first back-to-back losses of his career and a defeat to Alessio Sakara at UFC 101, Thales Leites has been cut from the UFC's roster of fighters.
Leites fought current champ Anderson Silva for the UFC middleweight title just four months ago.
The release was first reported by AOL FanHouse and has since been confirmed by MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) with sources close to the fighter and organization.
Leites' profile has also since been removed from UFC.com.
Following a lackluster unanimous-decision loss to Silva at UFC 97, Leites (14-3 MMA, 5-3 UFC) and "The Spider" were both heavily criticized. His next fight, which came Aug. 8 at Philadelphia's Wachovia Center, was relegated to the un-aired preliminary card, where Leites suffered a loss via razor-thin split decision.
Despite a five-fight win streak after a loss to Martin Kampmann during Leites' UFC debut in 2006, the Nova Uniao fighter will now look for work elsewhere.
During a post-UFC 101 press conference, UFC president Dana White was asked if Leites would be dropped from the organization. White never answered the question directly, possibly because such decisions are usually made in conjunction with UFC Vice President of Talent Relations Joe Silva after the media events.
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