What About Demian Maia vs. Anderson Silva?
by Cannon Jacques on Apr 20, 2009 10:18 AM EDT
in MMA News
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I have to admit that I didn't naturally view Demian Maia as a "loser" following UFC 97. Michael David Smith makes the case:
Maia, an undefeated Brazilian jiu jitsu specialist, was expected to get the next shot at Silva's middleweight title, probably at UFC 102. But after the way the Silva-Leites fight went, I just can't see the UFC putting the Silva-Maia fight on now. Silva-Leites turned a lot of fans off, and Maia is a very similar fighter to Leites. The UFC won't want to turn the fans off again, and that means the UFC won't match Silva up with a submission specialist again.
So Maia will probably fight someone like Nate Marquardt (and I think Maia-Marquardt is a great fight), while the UFC will try to find a bigger name to take on Silva next. Maybe that means defending the middleweight title against welterweight champ Georges St Pierre, although St. Pierre has a very tough fight ahead of him against Thiago Alves at UFC 100.
Actually, I don't look at Leites and Maia as being interchangeable in respect to MMA skillsets. Maia's an extremely offensive grappler, probably moreso than anyone else in the UFC. However, I can see the fans and the UFC brass wanting someone who will push the action against Anderson Silva, someone who will either attempt to mount a striking offensive or can wrestle Silva to the ground.
It's a vexing situation that the UFC finds itself in. They're fortunate enough to have arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. But, who can you match the man up against? How much confidence do you have in him as a headliner, given his most recent performances? Whatever is broken - whether it's bad matchmaking or something else - needs to be fixed.
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yes he is a different fighter than leites and he also has a completely different jiujitsu style.. but i don’t think the UFC would want to market another one dimensional JiuJitsu guy to compete with silva immediately after the leites fight..
i can only see this maybe after fighting at 205 or a match up against gsp, just to rid people of the awful taste they left us in his last fight..
That’s definitely something the UFC is afraid of now. Maia’s stand up is so basic, I have a hard time seeing him get through Silva’s reach to take him down. He might get him down once (and once may be all he needs) but there’s no guarantee. Silva was effectively able to stifle Leites’ ground game, so he could do the same to Maia, which means Maia will have to have more chances at it. Either hold him down longer, or be able to take him down more than once.
Really though, if Maia can’t get him down, the fight has the potential to end up the same way as last Saturday. No way the UFC risks that again.
The key here isn't really the fight
It’s the marketing. Basically the marketing campaign for Silva-Maia would be pretty much the same as Silva-Leites. It couldn’t be much different.
You’ll here Joe Rogan exclaiming “top of food chain jiu-jutsu” and the casual fan will be like….“dude I saw this fight last time and it sucked”.
Whilst I think Maia would be much more active this fight isn’t going to happen for the time being.
I don’t see what the problem is. Isn’t Marquardt already next in line for the belt? We all know that fight won’t be boring. Move that up to UFC 100, damnit! :) They still got the LW and LHW titles for shows after 100.
Mike Goldberg: "You know Joe, When Matt and his brother Mark Hughes were growing up, they would pound each other behind the barn."
Also if (and most likely) Silva and GSP both win that night they have that immediate hype on a HUGE stage. Lets say Silva wins and the next fight up on the show is GSP/Alves. If GSP wins Silva goes in the cage and they create a shit ton of hype! EPIC WINN!
Mike Goldberg: "You know Joe, When Matt and his brother Mark Hughes were growing up, they would pound each other behind the barn."
by xFenixKnightx on Apr 20, 2009 9:13 AM EDT up reply actions
On subject…lol! No, please no! I hope they dont make this match with Maia anytime soon.
Mike Goldberg: "You know Joe, When Matt and his brother Mark Hughes were growing up, they would pound each other behind the barn."
by xFenixKnightx on Apr 20, 2009 10:04 AM EDT up reply actions
I was not impressed with Marquardt’s last performance. At all. He beat a terrible gatekeeper in Wilson G. who he should have dispatched much earlier in the fight than he did. All comparisons between the two fighters had Marquardt looking the better of the two. eg. (camp, coach, corner, etc.) IMO, Marquardt will be a game fighter but destroyed by Silva.
I'm hearing over and over...
that it’s going to be Cane that gets the next shot. It’s a fight that will force Anderson to exchange and while Cane is very durable Anderson would run through him.
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
http://CurseOfRonKarkovice.blogspot.com/
by Brent Brookhouse on Apr 20, 2009 10:07 AM EDT reply actions
“Turrible, just plain turrible”
-Charles Barkley on his thoughts about a Cane vs Silva fight.
:P
Great, another fight where Silva fights someone thats not even in the same league as him. =/
Mike Goldberg: "You know Joe, When Matt and his brother Mark Hughes were growing up, they would pound each other behind the barn."
by xFenixKnightx on Apr 20, 2009 10:20 AM EDT up reply actions
Just a reminder Brent-
I called Cane taking out your boy Cantwell! lol
Arguing on the internet is like being in the special olympics, even when you win you are still retarded.
Yes you did...
I wasn’t expecting Cane to win by decision. If he did win I figured it would be a KO. Still…nice fight and Cantwell did well enough that I don’t feel like a complete idiot (like when I called James Irvin over Anderson Silva)
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
http://CurseOfRonKarkovice.blogspot.com/
by Brent Brookhouse on Apr 20, 2009 11:14 AM EDT up reply actions
lol, that was a nice fight
but I was wondering what happened to all of Cantwell’s BJJ talk? Guess it was just gamesmanship talk on his part.
Arguing on the internet is like being in the special olympics, even when you win you are still retarded.
You know Brent
If you’d stop mentioning that pick, maybe some people would start forgetting it.
Just kidding, of course… we will never forget.
by Derek Suboticki on Apr 20, 2009 1:40 PM EDT up reply actions
like when I called James Irvin over Anderson Silva
Damn, you too? That’s one of those picks where you look back and think, “WTF was I on when I picked him?”
If Anderson Silva would resume destroying dudes like he hid James Irvin, we’d have a lot less controversial shit to discuss.
by Cannon Jacques on Apr 20, 2009 7:02 PM EDT up reply actions
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