UFC Fight Night 39 results: Thales Leites takes out Trevor Smith in 45 seconds

ABU DHABI – It took no time at all for Thales Leites to sneak a right hand over the top of Trevor Smith’s defenses, and even less time for him to follow up with two more that planted Smith on his rear, leading to a TKO stoppage due to punches at 0:45 of round one.

The middleweight bout was part of today’s UFC Fight Night 39 preliminary card. It streamed on UFC Fight Pass from du Arena in Abu Dhabi.

It wasn’t exactly the route that many were expecting Leites to take.

Coming into this bout, 13 of his 22 victories came via submission, and he had never TKO’d an opponent in the UFC. But if fans were surprised to see Leites go to work with his hands early on, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist suggested they should go ahead and get used to it.

“I was expecting it,” Leites told color commentator Dan Hardy after the win. “I’ve been training a long time – boxing, muay Thai and everything. I just had to believe in my hands.”

Leites (23-4 MMA, 8-3 UFC) has now won three straight since returning to the UFC. Smith (11-5 MMA, 1-2 UFC) has dropped three of his past four.

Up-to-the-minute UFC Fight Night 39 results include:

For more on UFC Fight Night 39, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.

(John Morgan contributed to this report from on site in Abu Dhabi.)