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Thales Leites has gone from a title shot to a pink slip in only a matter of months. MMA Fanhouse confirmed that the UFC has in fact released the former middleweight title contender.

Leites fought last weekend at UFC 101 in the prelims against Alessio Sakara dropping a split decision. We all know how bad he looked against Silva, but apparently, he didn’t look much better against Sakara despite it being a very close fight that some believed he won.

Leites wasn’t the only fighter to be cut following UFC 101. Tamdan McCrory, Dan Cramer and George Roop all received their walking papers as well.

Image via UFC.com

Update: The UFC won’t be cutting Thales Leites or Tamdan McCrory after all. Looks like Dana pulled rank.

UFC president Dana White wasn’t aware of plans to drop both Leites and welterweight Tamdan McCrory and said he would reverse those decisions.

They won’t be cut, White said Thursday night.

Update 2: And nevermind, scratch that last update. They’re still cut.

ESPN MMA Live Archive

He wasn’t injured. He’s an emotional guy and he just didn’t feel like sticking around. He’s done that before. After the Jardine fight, they kind of surrounded him a little bit, but he said a couple of things into the mic and left the cage pretty quickly. Just the emotions of…here is a guy who is very confident that he could win this fight and he just never had a chance to get off. He’s an emotional creature, so he left the cage. It wasn’t really a big deal. I think people are making a bigger deal about it then it really is. It wasn’t anything left to see anyway. Anderson had beaten him and it wasn’t like it was going to a decision. We already knew what happened, so he decided to go into the back and get his tape off and get changed and everything else. I think he was kind of comforting us more than anything else because we were all down and bothered and you know, that’s that…He’s okay. You know, obviously he’s upset by the loss and the way that it happened because it was in a way that he feels embarrassed by. It’s weighing on him a little bit, but he will be fine. He’ll come back. Sometimes his biggest asset is his heart and it can be his biggest downfall…

—Xtreme Couture boxing trainer Ron Frazier talking to Fighthype (via MMA Mania) about Forrest’s quick exit after losing to Anderson Silva

I’m pretty indifferent to Forrest Griffin, so honestly when I saw him exit stage left last Saturday night, I didn’t really think it that big of a deal either, but judging by the reaction on this site and countless others across the net, I’m apparently in the minority.

When I saw it live, I thought he was just knocked out cold. I didn’t notice him waving off the ref to call it, so I can kinda see now why everyone is so upset about it. If he could have kept going, yeah, he should have, but I’m not going to crucify him for it. As Frazier said later in the interview, we’re not the ones that had to be in there with Anderson Silva. I can’t even imagine how it must have felt to fight someone you couldn’t even touch. For an experienced and elite level mixed martial artist that must have been devastating, especially with millions of people watching.

It will be interesting to see though what type of reaction Forrest gets in his next fight. Will there be boos sprinkled in with all the usual cheers?

Image via UFC

“My goal wasn’t to go out there and say, ‘Hey, look, Kenny Florian went longer than anybody else did with B.J. Penn at 155 (pounds), and he was in the best shape of his life,’ It’s a disappointment, and it’s a failure because I didn’t win the fight. The way I’m feeling right now, it’s a tough pill to swallow…I definitely thought I won the first round (and) I thought I won the third. I know one judge had me winning all three rounds and I think another judge had me winning 2-1. The goal was to try to get him to the fifth round and drown him. I couldn’t afford to make mistakes at that point…I really believed that it was going to come down to the wrestling and whoever got on top of who was going to win the fight. I think that was the key for both of us, and B.J. was able to do it. I made the first big mistake and I knew whoever made the first big mistake was probably going to lose the fight and that’s what happened. At the highest levels you can’t afford those kinds of mistakes.”

—Kenny Florian, via The Boston Herald, reflecting on his disappointing loss to BJ Penn

It definitely seemed like Kenny tried to take a page out of GSP’s playbook on how to beat Penn and it just didn’t work for him. He may have kept Penn under control for the majority of the first three rounds, but it just never appeared like he doing a whole lot besides holding him there. Maybe if he could have kept it up for two more, he would have edged out the decision (I didn’t see it that way, had Penn winning based on damage), but BJ’s strength and conditioning paid off allowing him to take advantage of the opening in the later rounds.

It is a tough pill to swallow though. Kenny’s basically in the same position Jon Fitch is in and the one Rich Franklin was in. He’s clearly one of the best in the division, but none of them were effective enough against the champ to give anyone the impression they would win in a rematch.

Kenny will bounce back though. I don’t think it’s in his DNA to quit.

Image via UFC.com

Update: Kenny on ProMMARadio via Cagewriter

It’s too bad other boxers (*cough*Floyd Mayweather*cough*) don’t have the same attitude towards MMA as Roy Jones Jr. has.

“When you get to see the fight in slow motion, you can see that Amir Sadollah was out and then, after a couple of strikes, wakes back up and starts trying to stand back up. You know me and have spoken with me about other fights, my job is to protect the fighters and I try and do my best to do that. What made me stop the fight was the fact that, after the multiple uppercuts by Hendricks, I felt that Sadollah was out and went limp. He fell down to his hands and knees and just stayed there. From where I was, I could not see his eyes to see if he was out, but I felt that he was not defending himself and, after several more punches that went unanswered, I stopped the fight.”

—Dan Miragliotta, via Fighters.com, explaining why he stopped the Sadollah-Hendricks fight

I think the gif clearly shows Amir was not “out.” Rocked? Yes, but not out. Miragliotta may have a case about him not intelligently defending himself, but that was only for a second or two before Amir tried to stand back up. I try not to blame refs for bad judgment calls, but they at least need to be in the right position to make the best call they can, and Miragliotta clearly wasn’t. Maybe if he was in position to see more than Hendrick’s back and Sadollah’s ass he would have seen Amir still moving and attempting to get back up to his feet, or at least seen that every shot Hendricks landed was to the back of the head.

Since everyone seems to be making amends these days, can Big John McCarthy please be next on the list?

Gif via Stick Figure MMA

It doesn’t start until the 5:30 mark.

Dan Henderson isn’t going to like this. Following Anderson Silva’s destruction of Forrest Griffin, it appears Anderson wants to make a permanent move to light heavyweight and relinquish his middleweight title. And Dana White agreed.

It looks like a dislocated jaw was the reason behind Forrest Griffin’s sprint for the locker room immediately following his devastating loss to Anderson Silva.

The mystery of Forrest Griffin’s jog from the Octagon in Philadelphia immediately after being knocked out spectacularly by Anderson Silva at UFC 101 was clarified Sunday when the American’s camp revealed he had suffered a dislocated jaw after being struck by the supremely-gifted Brazilian.

Griffin was roundly criticised in the hours following the fight, and for failing to show at the post-event news conference, but Griffin had been taken to the hospital for checks, unable to hear in one ear, and in order to get his jaw checked.

Forrest has definitely had better nights. Hopefully, he’s able to make a quick recovery. I’m sure he’d like to put this fight behind him as fast as he possibly can.

Image via Cagewriter

Update: Inside Fights has a conflicting report claiming that Forrest Griffin did not sustain a dislocated jaw and hearing loss.

Reports circulated last night and this morning that Forrest Griffin’s decision to leave the Octagon and the arena were due to a possible broken/dislocated jaw and hearing loss. The reports, which were started on a popular MMA message board and circulated widely by the Telegraph, stated that Griffin left in order to seek immediate medical care.

Inside Fights has confirmed with sources close to Griffin’s camp that he did not leave the cage due to injury. While we don’t know why he abruptly left the cage (other than being upset and emotional after his loss), we can confirm that the injury reports are not true.

I’ll update again when I see further confirmation, hopefully with comment from Griffin.

Thanks to Billdo for the tip

Update 2: Good news. More confirmation coming in that Forrest didn’t suffer any injuries.

Reports surfaced on Sunday that Griffin had suffered a jaw injury and that was the reason for his hasty exit, but MMAWeekly.com was able to confirm with representatives from Zinkin Entertainment, Griffin’s management group, that he is physically fine following the Saturday night fight.

Griffin suffered no broken jaw and he is physically okay, said the Zinkin representative, but emotionally he is definitely not dealing well with the loss.

Sorry about screwing this one up. Glad to hear Forrest is fine physically though.

Here’s what all the fuss was about during the Riley-Nelson fight. I see event security and law enforcement were trying real hard to break it up.