NITEROI, Brazil — Thales Leites is getting close to retiring from mixed martial arts, and he’s already working on his next endeavors.
The former UFC middleweight title contender has been fighting professionally since 2003, entering the Octagon 20 times in two runs as a UFC fighter, and recently opened his gym in his hometown of Niteroi, Brazil.
”It’s different. I like it,” Leites said of life as a gym owner. “We have a Nova Uniao training center in Niteroi now, with my own students, something I never had before. I taught jiu-jitsu in Hawaii for six months before in 2004, but it wasn’t my team.