After an evening of buildup, the main event at Maximum Fighting Championship's Unstoppable card felt like it would have no end.

Brazilian fighter Thales Leites (15-3) and San Diego's Dean Lister (11-7) grappled, hugged and rolled their way through three full rounds on Friday night at the River Cree Casino. Leites took the win in a unanimous decision.

Lister was intent on beating the Brazilian on the ground. He spent the duration of the fight trying to get Leites on the mat. When he did, Leites' defensive game was too sound to let Lister get any further in his game plan.

While the win pleased Lister, it didn't sit well with the MFC fans. The booing began two minutes into the final round, when Lister pulled Leites down. The most excitement of the night came when Leites' elbows opened up a cut above Lister's eye. It happened with Lister's face buried in his opponent's torso.

"I heard some guys booing, but people don't know how tough it is (in the ring)," Leites said after the fight. The middleweight also said he wanted a shot at some hardware for his next fight.

"I'm here not for play," he said. "This is my profession and I want the belt."
In the top match of the main card on Friday, hometown favourite Jason MacDonald(22-13)temporarily had his first MFC draw against Milwaukee's Solomon Hutcherson (11-6), only to have judges votes recalculated at the conclusion of the Lister-Leites fight. MacDonald was ruled the split-decision winner at the end of the night.

Standing in the ring after the fight, neither fighter was happy.

"I thought I won," Hutcherson said. "But hey, we can go another round."
"Screw one more round," MacDonald countered. "Let's do five more. Let's do it all over again."

The fighters' eagerness may be rewarded on Feb. 26, when MFC hosts its next event.

FORT MCMURRAY'S LEWIS LANDS 'CAREER-CHANGING' WIN
He had won six consecutive bouts, all in the first round, but the latest addition to that streak is the sweetest for Fort McMurray light middleweight fighter Dwayne Lewis (10-4). Lewis landed a solid uppercut at 4:58 of the first round that knocked Marvin Eastman(16-12)on his seat. Lewis pounced on the Las Vegas-based fighter, raining down punches before the official stepped in and called the fight.

"That's a career-changing fight," Lewis's trainer, Sandy Bowman, said prior to the fight. "His record right now is 10-4. If that record has a fight and a win over Marvin Eastman, that'll jump Dwayne to the top-five guys in Canada."
In other fights:Ryan Jimmo(12-1) had promised fireworks, but had to settle for another full-length decision victory for his 12th win in a row. He took a unanimous decision over Emmanuel Newton(12-6-1) of Norwalk, Calif.
Wildomar, Calif.'s Art Santore (18-8) was bloodied early in his tilt with Bryan Baker (11-1) of Victoriaville, Calif., but stuck it out to go the distance in a crowd-pleasing fight. Baker took the unanimous decision win and posed for pictures with Santore after the fight while Santore kissed Baker's cheek.

Torrence, Calif.'s Jesse Juarez (12-5) outlasted Dallas' Joe Christopher (9-3), scoring a unanimous decision win in the bout.

Local fighter Nick Penner (9-1) took a deep cut above his left eye but still managed to force Leduc's Ryan Fortin (5-2) to tap out via rear naked choke late in the second round. Red Deer's Ryan Machan improved to 10-3 with his first-round rear naked choke win over Kajan Johnson (16-11) of Burns Lake, B.C. Fort McMurray's Kenny Hamilton evened his record out at 2-2 with his first-round TKO loss to Calgary's Billy Hua (3-0).