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Rocky. Rudy. Amir Sadollah.
However, this warm and fuzzy feeling of goodwill apparently does not apply to Thales Leites. Nobody seems particularly interested in seeing him do the impossible.
Headed into his middleweight championship showdown with Anderson Silva at this Saturday’s UFC 97 no one is giving Leites much of a chance to survive, let alone win.
Many media commentators have all but ignored the unheralded Brazilian while hyping up this weekend’s event, choosing instead to focus on Chuck Liddell’s comeback fight with Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and/or Silva’s strange preoccupation with someday boxing Roy Jones Jr.
Those few people who aren’t totally disregarding Leites seem to be taking particular glee in his impending demise.
The popular blog CagePotato.com made reference this week to the “Thales Leites Execution Party,” and the fact that the champ will surely “curb-stomp” inside the cage this weekend. Professional fighters on Sherdog.com picked Silva to retain his belt by the overwhelming majority of 17-1.
The one fighter to pick Leites? Uh, it was Kit Cope and even he was hedging his bets.
“If Leites doesn’t get smacked with something that knocks him (silly) from the get-go, he’ll tap Silva out via leg submission or some other twisted sub you don’t see often,” Cope said.
Against a proven knockout artist like Silva, that seems like a pretty big “if.”
Even the title of the event, “UFC 97: Redemption” seems to indicate a desire to see “The Spider” bounce back from what some critics felt was a lackluster performance against Patrick Cote at UFC 90 with a solid beating of Leites.
Indeed, Leites currently finds himself in the unusual position of being a long-shot underdog that almost no one wants to win. Most MMA fans seem to think it would be a major drag if he somehow took the title off the unbeatable, untouchable Silva, who is ranked as the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world by some pollsters.
The negative feelings likely stem from the perception that Leites is only getting a title shot because Silva has already beaten the UFC’s top middleweights. Meanwhile, other more interesting contenders like Demian Maia, Michael Bisping and Yushin Okami are all either too green or already committed to other upcoming fights.
While it’s hard to deny Leites’ 14-1 record and five-fight win-streak, he hasn’t faced any competition even remotely in Silva’s league and he still doesn’t have much of a profile with UFC fans. His last victory came over perennial journeyman Drew McFedries at UFC 90 and prior to that he defeated Nate Marquardt by iffy split decision after Marquardt was penalized for a pair of illegal strikes.
Silva, on the other hand, is one of the sport’s most popular forces and has put together one of the more impressive championship runs in recent memory. His nine-fight win streak and undefeated record in the Octagon are event more remarkable once you consider they’ve come against the best competition the sport has to offer.
The fact that his last two fights were against less-than-top-notch opponents in James Irvin (at light heavyweight) and Cote only serves to remind us how completely he’s cleaned out the UFC’s 185-pound division in just under three years.
It seems inconceivable that “The Spider” would fall off here against Leites and – even if the unthinkable did occur – it would only lead to a re-do of this underwhelming match-up. Perhaps it’s the desire to see him dispense with current business in order to get to higher profile opponents like Maia and Okami that has led fans to discount and even dislike Leites.
Whatever the case, Leites won’t be a smart (or popular) bet this weekend.
