PFL and Bellator MMA vet Carlos Leal answered the call for UFC 308, stepping in on short notice against Rinat Fakhretdinov. The event is headlined by featherweight champ Ilia Topuria, looking to make his first title defense opposite the great Max Holloway.
Carlos “The Lion” Leal
Standing at five-foot-eleven
Fighting at 170 lbs (welterweight)
30-years-old
Fighting out of Curitiba, Parana, Brazil
Training out of Thai Brazil
A pro record of 21-5
10 KO/TKOs, 2 Submissions
Pro comp; Santiago Ponzinibbio
How Leal will fare in the UFC
Leal is an excellent signing on short notice. Leal has been around fighting in big fights. He’s fought in LFA, PFL, and Bellator. He’s had a ton of success in his career. Leal is a former champ in two smaller regional shows but more notably a former LFA champion. He went 5-2 in PFL and 3-0 in LFA. His only two losses in the last nine years both came to Sadibou Sy and Sy is a difficult fighter to take on. Leal has notable wins over Chris Brown, Ray Cooper III, David Zawada, and Dilano Taylor. He has high-level experience which you really don’t see in a UFC debutant nowadays.
Leal is a mix of power, explosiveness, technical skill, and chaos. He can excel from many different areas and that’s why he’s been doing so well the last couple of years. He does have wrestling in his back pocket but doesn’t tend to use it. I don’t rate his wrestling all that highly either. He has the capability to chain some attempts together but it’s mostly upper body takedowns which aren’t sustainable. I’d say he’s better on the mat but he only has two career submissions. He definitely can still mix it up there however.
With the wrestling and grappling what they are, most of the credit goes to his defense. Leal is tough to take down. He can sprawl very well and against the cage he fights the wrist and underhooks like he should. When taken down he does a great job of getting his hips free and pushing down on the head to free space.
The striking is where he excels. His hands get a lot of credit and rightfully so. Also, he did move to 1-0 as a pro boxer a couple of years ago. Not just with his hands; Leal uses a bit of everything. The dude kicks like a mule. He loves to destroy the lead leg of his opponent and blast the body. When he smells blood in the water that’s when you’ll see him mix 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 crowds with punches from both sides. A lot of his finishes come from landing the killshot against the cage as Leal is throwing caution to the end.
Leal doesn’t have any glaring holes. He had trouble against Sy, yes. Leal fights with a lot of pressure and Sy being the level of striker he is with that 6’3″ frame it was tough to connect. Not many guys are built like Sy and Leal still did well in those fights. Leal does slow a little bit but is durable and his output doesn’t really slow any. I see Leal doing well in the UFC and eventually cracking the top 15.
How he matches up with Fakhretdinov
Fakhretdinov is more of a wrestler. It’s usually his relentless wrestling pace that overwhelms guys. I can’t see him getting Leal down as much and if so I’m not sold on the grappling of Fakhretdinov. Fakhretdinov showed improvements on the feet in his last fight. With that said he throws a lot of looping punches. More known for his power I think he’s too sloppy to out-strike Leal. Leal is levels above in the striking. Fakhretdinov has the power but Leal can crack as well and has a chin. Leal slows but Fakhretdinov slows even worse.
I’m confident that Leal will win this because he has better striking, cardio, and takedown defense skills. He’s taken this fight on short notice but had a fight four days prior to this fight anyway so he’ll be prepared.
