After this past weekends MFC 23 event, former UFC middleweight challenger Thales Leites (15-3) defeated Dean Lister via unanimous decision to move himself in contention for the vacant Maximum Fighting Championship middleweight title according to the Brazilian fighter.

In an article posted by Graciemag.com, the Jiu-Jitsu black belt talked about his next appearance with the Canadian promotion and his visit to the Canadian city in December.

When do you fight again?
Leites: I have one more fight on my contract with the event, which should be in February or early March. I don’t know whether it will be against Bryan Baker, Jason MacDonald or Travis Lutter. Probably against Baker for the belt. I don’t think there is a champion of my division there. I saw other people with belts in the other divisions, so Baker and I would be contenders for this title, which is vacant. That’s what they said at the press conference. Nevertheless, the bout could be against any of the three I mentioned (on the organization’s website the possibility of facing MacDonald is mentioned).

Canada has a lot of MMA fans. What was the MFC like?
Leites: The event was good, well organized. The difference is in that it uses a ring. It wasn’t an enormous gymnasium, like when the UFC goes to Canada, but it was packed. It was in a city further north, in Edmonton and it was cold, there was a snow storm and it hit 15 below zero. Even so a good crowd went to watch, there were no empty places. It was broadcast on HDNet and was great.