Thales Leites impressed tonight at UFC Fight Night 49 with a knockout victory over Francis Carmont early in the second round in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Round One
Leites with a leg kick as the two circles each other. He presses forward with a flurry, but Carmont backs away from it.
Carmont misses with a hook and Leites comes in with punches to initiate the clinch against the cage. He’s working hard now trying to get him down and is almost successful, but Carmont defends and they break apart.
Leites coming forward aggressively again. They trade leg kicks and then Carmont really loads up on one that takes Leites legs out from under him momentarily.
Leites with a couple of long range punches and then a kick. Carmont ducks down under a punch and reaches for the legs looking for the takedown, but Leites shows good balance to remain upright. Leites spins him around and clinches up against the cage.
They are apart again and back to the center of the cage. Another hard leg kick from Carmont knocks Leites off-balance again and he nods in acknowledgement that it was a good strike.
Leites feels his way in with the jab and then loads up with an overhand right. The two men jostle for position in the clinch against the cage. Carmont spins out and lands a solid leg kick and Leites unleashes a short flurry of punches in response, but without much finding it’s home.
Round Two:
Leg kick from Leites to start. He’s pushing the pace here aggressively at the start of the round and lands a big overhand right that may have hurt Carmont.
He unloads with some hard shots with carmont backed up against the cage. An uppercut lands cleanly with a left hook behind it and Carmont slumps head first onto the canvas! Leites is right on him with more punches on the mat, but Carmont is done and the referee calls an end to the fight, giving the Brazilian a big KO victory just 20 seconds into the second round.
Great finish from Leites and an all-round impressive showing from him that highlights the improvements he’s made to his game in recent years with better striking and more urgency to his work-rate on the feet.
