Thales Leites Lourenço (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈtaliʒ ˈlejtʃiʃ]; born September 6, 1981) is a Brazilian mixed martial artist. He is the current Superior Challenge middleweight champion.

A relative newcomer to the sport, Leites made his mixed martial arts debut at Shooto Brazil in 2003, defeating Felipe Arinelli by arm-triangle choke submission. Leites would win his next two fights in Vitória before making his debut in the United States in Hawaii's Rumble on the Rock promotion in 2005, where he defeated Adam Roland in his fourth consecutive mixed martial arts victory.

After a successful outing in the U.S., Leites returned to Brazil to fight Gustavo Machado, who was coming off two wins in the Japanese Pancrase organization. Leites defeated the more experienced Machado by submission in the third round, and was invited back to Rumble on the Rock to fight Hawaiian Ronald Jhun in September. Despite fighting a hometown favorite, Leites notched his sixth victory, defeating Jhun by technical knockout in the later half of the fight.

Thales of Miletus ( /ˈθeɪliːz/; Greek: Θαλῆς, Thalēs; c. 624 BC – c. 546 BC) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Miletus in Asia Minor, and one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Many, most notably Aristotle, regard him as the first philosopher in the Greek tradition. According to Bertrand Russell, "Western philosophy begins with Thales." Thales attempted to explain natural phenomena without reference to mythology and was tremendously influential in this respect. Almost all of the other pre-Socratic philosophers follow him in attempting to provide an explanation of ultimate substance, change, and the existence of the world—without reference to mythology. Those philosophers were also influential, and eventually Thales' rejection of mythological explanations became an essential idea for the scientific revolution. He was also the first to define general principles and set forth hypotheses, and as a result has been dubbed the "Father of Science", though it is argued that Democritus is actually more deserving of this title.

Jeremy Graham Horn (born August 25, 1975) is an American mixed martial artist. He is one of the most experienced fighters in the sport with a professional record of 89–21–5. He has displayed an iron chin throughout his career having never been knocked out or knocked down until his 95th fight, against Chuck Liddell.

Horn's early martial arts training was under Robert Bussey's Warrior International founder, Robert Bussey. Horn earned a RBWI black belt under Bussey in 1992, and spent most of his career with the Miletich Fighting Systems team in Iowa, and is currently training in Salt Lake City, Utah with Elite Performance, the team that he created.

Horn's notable victories include Gilbert Yvel, Forrest Griffin, Dean Lister, David Loiseau, Travis Fulton, Chael Sonnen (x3) and Chuck Liddell. He also fought to a draw against UFC Hall Of Famer Dan Severn at Extreme Challenge 7 in 1997.

Horn defeated the eventual light heavyweight champion and UFC star Chuck Liddell via arm-triangle choke at UFC 19. Liddell later avenged his loss to Horn at UFC 54 in the fourth round, when the fight was stopped after Horn told the referee he could no longer see.

Jesse Marcus Taylor (born January 2, 1983) is an American professional mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter. He was a cast member of SpikeTV's The Ultimate Fighter 7, winning his entry, preliminary, quarterfinal and semi-final matches, and then became infamous for being the only fighter to ever be removed from finals due to events that occurred after filming was completed (see Removal from the Finale below). Taylor has fought for top promotions such as: Ultimate Fighting Championship, Strikeforce, DREAM, Maximum Fighting Championship, Impact FC and Cage Warriors Fighting Championship. Taylor holds notable victories over Tom Watson, Chris Camozzi, Murilo Bustamante, and Denis Kang.

Jesse Taylor graduated from Poway High School in Poway, CA, where he was a wrestler. After high school Jesse attended San Francisco State university. He took Jiu-Jitsu classes but decided to stick to wrestling. When things did not work out in San Francisco he moved back down to San Diego, where he then attended junior college. In junior college, Taylor became a two-time All-American, state runner-up in 2003, and state champion in 2004, only losing three matches. Taylor was then rewarded with a scholarship to Cal State Fullerton. After the birth of his son, it become harder for Taylor to concentrate on wrestling and school while adjusting to the family life. Taylor still managed to qualify for the Division 1 NCAA Tournament and was 3rd in the Pac-10's.

Anderson da Silva (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈɐ̃deʁsõ ˈsiwvɐ]; born April 14, 1975) is a Brazilian mixed martial artist. He is the current UFC Middleweight Champion and the promotion's longest reigning champion. With 14 consecutive wins and 9 title defenses, Silva holds the longest winning streak and title defense streak in UFC history.

Silva is ranked as the number one Middleweight in the world by multiple publications, and is the consensus No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world according to ESPN, Sherdog, Yahoo! Sports, MMAFighting.com and other publications. UFC president Dana White has proclaimed Silva as "the greatest mixed martial artist ever."^{[undue weight? – discuss]} Silva is also the last Cage Rage Middleweight Champion and a former Shooto Middleweight Champion. Besides the UFC and Cage Rage, Silva has fought for a number of other MMA promotions including the Pride Fighting Championships, Shooto and Rumble on the Rock.

Although known primarily for his mastery of Muay Thai striking, Silva is also a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu blackbelt, a rank he earned in 2006 from Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira who follows Gracie Lineage through Carlson Gracie, like Murilo Bustamante and the Brazilian Top Team. He began martial arts training at the age of 14, training Tae kwon do and earning a black belt by the age of 18. He is also a black belt in Judo and a yellow rope in Capoeira.