Dean Lister to Face Thales Leites in Main Event of MFC 23

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.

Lister (11-6), the 2003 ADCC submission wrestling absolute champion (see above video for his kimura submission over Nate Marquardt), has won eight of his fights by submission. His last five fights were for the UFC, defeating Yuki Sasaki, Jordan Radev and Jeremy Horn and losing to Marquardt and Yushin Okami.

The most recent challenger to Anderson Silva's UFC middleweight belt, Leites (14-3), was cut from the UFC in August following a close loss to Alessio Sakara. Prior to his unsuccessful duel against Silva, Leites recorded five straight Octagon wins from April 2007 through October 2008.

WEC veteran Bryan Baker (10-1) was initially approached to fight Leites but talks apparently fell through.