"There’s life after the UFC. Thank God that life goes on and right away an opportunity came up, so I kept training focused to fight. It always has both sides. The bad one is that leaving the UFC is like a cold shower. The UFC is the largest MMA promotion in the world in all meanings, chiefly the visibility of the fighter. This is the reason everybody wants to be out there. The good side is we always learn with what happens and of course because I keep fighting for other events and it proves it’s not the end of the world. The wasn’t any environment at all. They just sent an e-mail message saying due to the result of the latest fights they were ending up my contract and wishing the best for me and they could keep in touch again in the future. [Coach] Dede Pederneiras has a great relationship with Joe Silva so there wasn’t any bad blood. You have to arrive there and give a show, brawl, knockouts and submissions. Most of the audience are laypersons and they like what they see. So a technical fight or another thing won’t be a success and the promotion looks for these styles in the fighters”.

MMAMania.com talks to former UFC middleweight contender Thales Leites, who fights Jesse Taylor tonight in the main event of MFC 25: "Vindication" in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Leites has been training with fellow Brazilians Pedro Rizzo, Glover Teixeria and Vitor Miranda and hopes to get back to the world's largest mixed martial arts promotion after a successful run on the regional circuit. Will "JT Money" cash in on those dreams as well by denying Leites his third straight win?