"First of all, I would like to say Anderson has never been or went to Nova Uniao. I have never seen him around, we were never friends, only professional colleagues. No doubt he is a great fighter. If he says he was easy on me because he considers me to be his ‘friend', I don't agree. The fight was not finished because neither of us could do it. People criticized me a lot after the fight with Anderson, I really should have done more and gone for it but the guys who came after me did not do things much different. The ones who tried to stand-up with him got exposed and were knocked out and the one who used the game plan of taking him down was defeated on the judges' decision, like me. I think it's funny a champion that always prays on the interviews to respect the other and martial arts to say something like that. I am a fighter and I respect everyone, I know what a fighter goes through to get there. We all have good and bad moments in our career, after all our life is just a big rollercoaster with ups and downs. But we have got to stay humble and stay quiet about subjects that do not add anything. There is no superman, we are all human beings." -Thales Leites via Tatame.com

Following UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva's somewhat shocking revelation that he took it easy on fellow Brazilian and friend Thales Leites in their lackluster affair back in April of 2009 at UFC 97, Leites fired back today at Silva revealing that the two were never friends. 

Leites explains his side of the situation in the above note he sent to Brazilian MMA website Tateme.com, stating that Silva didn't finish the fight because he couldn't, and asserting that the champions comments were disrespectful.

The fight between he and Silva is considered by many to be among the worst in UFC championship history. Neither fighter engaged the other in any significant manner throughout the course of the five round decision, and Leites was cut from the UFC shortly thereafter.

The Nova Uniao product has gone 6-2 since being cut from the UFC with wins over Dean Lister, Jesse Taylor, Matt Horwich, and Jeremy Horn. He sports an outstanding professional record of 20-4.