7. Anderson Silva vs. Thales Leites (UFC 97)
The quality of competition in the early fights of Anderson Silva's epic middleweight title reign left a little to be desired. Other than a rematch with Rich Franklin, whom he defeated for the title, and Dan Henderson, no one stood out as a worthy contender, so much so that Silva had begun taking fights at 205 as well. When Thales Leites was announced as the challenger to Silva's championship at UFC 97 in April, 2009, there wasn't a human being on the planet, including Leites, that thought he posed any serious threat to "The Spider". Although he was coming in riding a five fight win streak, only one of those wins was against a notable fighter (Nate Marquardt). Fans expected another display of Anderson's brilliance, utilizing his mastery of striking to make quick work of his undermatched Brazilian foe. From the very beginning of the fight, the champ seemed bored and complacent. The first round was terrible and had little action, and it didn't get any better from there. Midway through the fight, Leites began flopping onto his back repeatedly in an attempt to lure Silva into his guard, who of course was having none of it. The fans in the arena began to rain down raucous boos. When Thales realized he wouldn't be able to get The Spider on the mat where he could utilize his strength in jiu-jitsu he essentially gave up, content to just survive the fight. For his part, the champ displayed none of the aggression he was known for. The fight was so bad that chants of "Bullsh*t" and "GSP" could be heard. Years later Silva would say that he didn't finish his opponent out of respect. Unfortunately he didn't have the same respect for the audience.