Tom ‘Kong’ Watson won plaudits for his bravery but not the contest as he lost a unanimous decision to Thales Leites in Brazil.

The Southampton MMA star was taking part in UFC 163 in former middleweight title contender Leites’ hometown of Rio, but never looked likely to secure a victory.

The tone of the fight was set in the first round as Leites landed a few strikes and managed to get Watson to the ground.

Once there Watson was stuck on his back for three minutes with one arm trapped and so took some punishment, but managed to get back to his feet before the end of the round.

The second started with a similar pattern as Watson again found himself taken to the ground.

This time Leites managed to get him in an armbar, but Watson showed great strength to escape and then enjoy his best minute of the contest.

Leites appeared to tire from his unsuccessful efforts to end the contest on the floor and Watson stepped up the gas and put the pressure on, but there wasn’t quite enough time for him to make serious inroads.

However, Leites recovered by the time the third started and began by landing vicious left hand that gave Watson a horrible and bloody cut above his left eye.

Watson was throwing caution to the wind to try and get the win and found himself on the ground again.

Leites was happy to play for time and did secure an arm triangle which could have forced submissions from many opponents but Watson refused to quit.

When the judges’ scorecards were read out it showed a unanimous win for Leites with all three scoring the contest 30-27.

For Watson it is now two defeats in three UFC contests, but his exciting nature and his superb fight against Stanislav Nedkov should mean he gets another chance, quite possibly back in Britain.

A delighted Leites, who was back in the UFC for the first time since having been dropped, reflected: “This was more strategy. This was our plan, but at the end of the fight, I had to fight and stand.

“He’s a tough guy. I took him to the ground several times, but he blocked it. He’s very tough.”