T. Leites ends his career after 37 fights in professional MMA. Photo: Reproduction/Facebook UFC
With a 15-year career in professional MMA, Thales leites at the age of 37, he announced his departure from the profession in UFC Sao Paulo. Your last fight will be against Hector Lombard by the middleweights on September 22nd at the Ibirapuera gym. The Brazilian declared that the time has come to 'hang up the fights' in an interview with the program “Giro Combate”.
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“I've been fighting for a long time, in the UFC alone I've been fighting for a decade. I think I've already fought a lot, I don't intend to do this very intense training for so long, taking a lot of punches to the head, having severe dehydration two to three times a year. I enjoyed my journey, I think I did a lot, but I think the time has come to say goodbye”, explained Thales.
The Brazilian is coming off two consecutive defeats and wants a victory to end his last fight under his UFC contract. His opponent, Lombard has five consecutive setbacks. Thales and his team are studying the opponent to achieve victory at home.
“Hector is a veteran, he is 40 years old, and he is not in a good phase. But he is a very tough guy, he has very heavy hands, in addition, of course, to his quality in judo. I see that he has a lot of explosiveness, but I think that as the fight goes on he won't be able to maintain the pace for long. We are studying his game and we are going in search of this victory”, said the carioca.
The Nova União athlete will retire from MMA, but intends to continue competing in jiu-jitsu, in addition to managing his new gym in Rio de Janeiro.
Thales in his 15 years of MMA has accumulated 36 fights, with 27 wins and nine losses. In his first stint in Ultimate, the Rio native faced Anderson Silva for the middleweight belt, but was defeated by unanimous decision by the judges.
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