FanHouse ThalesLeites

Former UFC middleweight Dean Lister has signed a multi-fight deal with Maximum Fighting Championship and his first opponent for the Canadian promotion will be former UFC title challenger Thales Leites in the main event of MFC 23 on Dec. 4 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Thales Leites, the most recent UFC middleweight title challenger, has found a new home in the Maximum Fighting Championship in Canada.

MMA Twitter universe is getting excited about Saturday night's Strikeforce fight between Gina Carano and Cris Cyborg, so we have a number of questions about the fight in our latest MMA Twitter mailbag about the fight, starting with whether Cyborg winning would be good or bad for women's MMA.

We also have a question about a strange couple of days in the UFC, when two fighters lost their jobs, then got them back, then lost them again. Your questions and my answers for the MMA Twitter mailbag are below.

Thales Leites, who less than four months ago competed for the UFC middleweight title, was given his walking papers in a meeting Wednesday afternoon with the UFC, FanHouse confirmed with a source close to Leites.

Leites (14-3) had exclusively fought for the UFC since The Ultimate Fighter 4 Finale in November 2006, where he lost his promotional debut to Martin Kampmann, but would bounce back with five straight wins to earn a shot against champion Anderson Silva. However, after the two turned out a lackluster and tentative five-round performance, both faced heavy criticism and required a strong follow-up outing to restore their reputation.

PHILADELPHIA -- Anderson Silva walked into UFC 101 surrounded by boos, a goat, and left bathed in adulation, the G.O.A.T., or at least something close.

Needing a highlight-reel worthy performance to quiet the sudden doubts emanating from two straight lackluster performances, Silva -- fighting for only the second time at 205 pounds -- toyed with former UFC light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin before putting him away with a stunning short right in just 3:23 of the first round.

PHILADELPHIA -- This is the UFC 101 undercard live blog for all six matches on the undercard. FanHouse is live in Philly and will provide round-by-round details of every match.

The live card begins below.

PHILADELPHIA -- During every UFC pre-fight press conference, the organization brings up the head of the state athletic commission to address the media and the fighters. Almost every time, the executive says little of substance, essentially welcoming the promotion and the fighters and talking about the general economic impact of the event. But Pennsylania Commission executive director Greg Sirb had his own agenda at UFC 101, and that was warning the fighters about the notorious Philly fans.

Most of the best middleweights in mixed martial arts are in the UFC, just as most of the best fighters in every weight class from bantamweight to heavyweight are under contract to Zuffa. But as I post my new list of the Top 10 middleweights in MMA, a list topped by UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva, I want to commend Affliction for putting together the best middleweight fight possible outside the Octagon: Vitor Belfort vs. Jorge Santiago.

The middleweight division in mixed martial arts is a mess. The undisputed best middleweight in the world, Anderson Silva, looks bored with the middleweight division in the UFC, and he's moving up to fight Forrest Griffin at light heavyweight, at least for the time being. The UFC 99 main event of Wanderlei Silva vs. Rich Franklin features one star (Silva) moving down from light heavyweight to middleweight because he wants a shot at Anderson Silva's belt, and another star (Franklin) moving up from middleweight to light heavyweight because he knows he'll never get another shot at Anderson Silva's belt.

And that's just for starters.