The UFC finalized UFC 101 which will take place at the Wachovia Center in Phiadelphia and former middleweight contender Thales Leites has fallen from the number one contender to a preliminary fighter matched up against journeyman UFC fighter Alessio Sakara.

His middleweight clash will sit behind two other 185 contests on the fight for PPV exposure and he will be behind Amir Sadollah vs. Johny Hendricks, and Kendall Grove vs. Ricardo Almeida.


Sakara’s teammate Aaron Riley will be making his UFC return as well, facing off against TUF 8 veteran Shane Nelson in a rematch of a somewhat controversial stoppage that took place at UFC 96.

The full card is as follows.


BJ Penn vs. Kenny Florian

Anderson Silva vs. Forrest Griffin

Amir Sadollah vs. Johny Hendricks

Kendall Grove vs. Ricardo Almeida

Josh Neer vs. Kurt Pellegrino

Shane Nelson vs. Aaron Riley

Tamdan McCrory vs. John Howard

Thales Leites vs. Alessio Sakara

Matt Riddle vs. Dan Cramer

George Sotiropoulos vs. Rob Emerson

Jesse Lennox vs. Danillo Villefort