Welcome to the UFC: Carlos Leal

PFL and Bellator MMA veteran Carlos Leal answered the call after UFC 308 and stepped in at short notice against Rinat Fakhretdinov. The event will be headlined by featherweight champion Ilia Topuria, who is seeking his first title defense against the great Max Holloway.

Carlos “The Lion” Leal
Standing at a height of 1.70 meters
Fight at 170 pounds (welterweight)
30 years old
Fights from Curitiba, Parana, Brazil
Training in Thai Brazil
A professional record of 21-5
10 KO/TKOs, 2 submissions
Pro Comp; Santiago Ponzinibbio

How Leal will do in the UFC

Leal is an excellent short-term signing. Leal has fought in major battles. He has fought in LFA, PFL and Bellator. He had a lot of success in his career. Leal is a former champion on two smaller regional shows, but most importantly a former LFA champion. He went 5-2 in the PFL and 3-0 in the LFA. His only two defeats in the last nine years both came to Sadibou Sy, and Sy is a tough fighter to deal with. Leal has notable wins over Chris Brown, Ray Cooper III, David Zawada and Dilano Taylor. He has high-level experience that you really don’t see in a UFC debutant these days.

Leal is a mix of power, explosiveness, technical ability and chaos. He can excel in many different areas and that is why he has done so well in recent years. Although he has wrestling in his back pocket, he tends not to use it. I don’t rate his wrestling that highly either. He has the ability to string together some attempts, but they are mostly upper body attacks that are not sustainable. I would say he is better on the mat, but he only has two career submissions. But he can definitely create some variety.

Wrestling and grappling being what they are, most of the credit goes to his defense. Leal is difficult to defeat. He can spread out very well and against the cage he fights with his wrist and underhook as he should. As he descends, he does a great job of clearing his hips and pushing his head down to create space.

Batting is his strength. His hands get a lot of recognition and rightly so. He also went 1-0 as a professional boxer a few years ago. Not just with his hands; Leal uses a little bit of everything. The guy kicks like a mule. He loves to destroy his opponent’s front leg and blast the body. When he smells blood in the water, you can see him mixing in the body shots and Thai knees in the clinch. Leal can get a bit wild, but at the same time has an excellent power jab, a fight-ending one-two, and rips combos to the head and body. In the chaos, Leal comes forward with punches from both sides. Many of his finishes come from him landing the killshot against the cage while Leal exercises caution until the end.

Leal doesn’t have any glaring holes. He had problems against Sy, yes. Leal fights under a lot of pressure and with Sy being the level of striker that he is at 6’3″ tall, it was difficult to score on him. Not many guys are built like Sy and Leal and still did well in these fights. Leal does slow down a bit, but he’s durable and his performance doesn’t really slow him down. I expect Leal to do well in the UFC and crack the top 15 at some point.

How he can keep up with Fakhretdinov

Fakhretdinov is more of a wrestler. It’s usually his relentless wrestling pace that overwhelms the boys. I can’t imagine he’ll beat Leal that badly, and if so, I’m not sold on the fight with Fakhretdinov. Fakhretdinov showed improvements on his feet in his last fight. Still, he throws a lot of looping shots. I’m more known for his power and think he’s too sloppy to outdo Leal. Leal is right up there in striking. Fakhretdinov has the power, but Leal can also crack and has a chin. Leal slows down, but Fakhretdinov slows down even more.

I am confident Leal will win this because he has better striking, cardio and takedown defense skills. He took this fight on short notice but still had a fight four days before this fight so he will be prepared.