Let’s go Maia! I’m sure that if he does get a shot at Anderson, it will not end up like the Leites thing because Maia is just at another level. He can take a punch, then pull guard on Anderson, which would spell trouble. I’m sure Maia will do this right off the bat because he doesn’t want to attempt any subs when they’re all sweaty and wet[or in GSP’s case, all greased up]. Go Ma-eee-yah!!

Right here with you fellas. Maia will sub him in the third with something slick. This card is insane, i hope Big Nog will probly try to get Maia’s help each other in this camp coz he’s connected with wand and galvao. If they both get subs, i will literally lose it.

Maia isnt gonna sub shit…. He wont be able to take Marquardt down, Maia is gonna take a beating for 3 rounds.

Marquardt takes this one. He has been to the ground with Leites and got out of his holds. For me, Nate is the biggest threat to Anderson and his Title.

Winner should get Anderson.

My prediction: Nate via TKO (GnP) Round 2

I think the winner of this should get the winner of Henderson/Bisping.

So if I was betting, I’d say we’ll see Nate vs. Henderson… and then Nate vs. Anderson 2.

Meanwhile, Okami sits by the phone and waits…

Maia IS gonna take this one but it will not be easy. Marquardt is a big MW and has a good all round game and solid sub defense.

Hopefully Maia will be getting his striking on point (especially if it goes to the judges) as a fair amount of the fight could actually end up on the feet and he will need to be testing himself against a good striker first in order to get the confidence to face Anderson.

For all the people saying Maia won’t get the shot because of Leites well I think that would be totally fucked up. He has subbed everyone since arriving in the UFC and made BJJ entertaining for a lot of people who dont understand the finer aspects. You cant judge a potential fight based on someone elses performance.

He has a very different way of bringing people into his game and I think he will be much more effective than Leites as he was obviously scared to stand with Anderson. Maia will be forced to do what it takes to win, lose or draw especially following the controversy of the Leites / Anderson fight.

They wouldn’t be matching these guys up if they didn’t plan on giving one of them a title shot some time after.

I’m taking Nate in this one. And for all our sakes, with the landscape of the MW title picture, I hope I am right.

maia is nothing like thales. He would never perform like that in a title match, that said marquardt is too much of a beast for maia

It’s ok with me!All those who still thinking that the best BJJ guys on the planet,just with is jits,can win over a TOP 10 MMA fighter on any day.I believe,they are the,one who’s gonna be disappointed on August 29!I,just didn’t know that BJJ was enough to win these days.But who knows maybe it’s me who don’t understand the game??

Ca$z: I really enjoyed your post! nice work. I will be rooting for Maia. I love ju jitsu and no one does it better then Maia and Jacre. I really hope that Maia wins, and I think he is fully capable of submitting Marquardt, but it wont be easy for Maia…he is going to have to take some damage before securing the submission. This fight is good because we get to see what level of toughness Maia posses. Marquardt will be the favorite….so betting on Maia as an underdog is very attractive to me. Very much looking forward to this fight. UFC 102 is shaping up nicely.

JJ: whats up buddy? YOU need to stop going around n saying that Hendo is going to beat Bisping, because Im telling you right now, Bisping is going to win that fight. THere is no doubt about it! I am so sure about it!

marquardt’s ground game is overlooked he used to sub ppl for fun before he developed a solid stand up game

i actually believe he can avoid the sub attempts by maia and win a UD/TKO

Yeah John,just like your,so sure that Maia’s gonna win,GSP is not worthy enough to challenge Sylva,BJ’s lost because of the vaseline,and Fedor is a GOD.We know john,YOU know it all!!!

John, I think you literally just told someone to not have an opinion. Do you ever feel like you start to act like everyones big brother on this website? I like you man, but sometimes i feel like you try to push people way to much. Again no disrespect, im just sayin

im taking hendo as well, and im so sure about that, so maybe your wrong just maybe john.

As dynamic as Maia’s BJJ is, he’s never faced a Marquardt in his MMA career. Nothing even close. I highly doubt Maia wins this fight. Nates got a very underrated ground game and overall is leaps and bounds above Damian as an overall fighter.

It’s all good. John happens to be very passionate about his picks.

He also happens to be very wrong sometimes.

Is this one of those times? We’ll see. Henderson three years ago would absolutely annihilate Bisping. I think even an old, watered down Hendo will smother Bisping on July 11th.

Bisping is quick, but his strikes aren’t going to phase Henderson, and he will get outwrestled. If Bisping does manage to outpoint him, it will be more of a testament to Henderson’t deterioration than Bisping’s prowess.

Don’t believe the hype, john! Bisping has been coddled by the UFC brass to sell tickets in the UK. He is nothing special.

Bisping’s blowout over the doomsday crippling chainsaw clearly shows that he can hang with an all time p4p best. We will finally see bisping’s chin get tested coz he’ll be trapped in the clinch when that right hand lands.

I agree and I’m gutted they didn’t put this one on the UFC 103 card as thats rumoured to be in the UK and I could have gotten to see it live. :-(

Hope its a good one for ya!

listen guys, I’m the biggest jits fan. I’ll take transitions and subs over KO’s any day of the week. After that last fight, Maia won’t be getting a shot against Silva!

If you’re right then Thales Leites will be the fighter I hate the most, I’ll be so angry if Maia gets screwed out of a title shot because of that idiot.

Kev: Nooooooooooooo!!!!

If Maia can show Dana and Joe Silva that he will attack hard on his feet against Nate, he might help his case, but Dana is not going to let that dog and pony show (UFC 97) happen again.
I like Maia, but I don’t want to see that repeated either.

I agree with you guys but the actual solution is to get Anderson out of the MW division. There is no one there who poses a legitimate threat to his title. IMO, is one of the most challenging issues of Dana’s tenure, and why Anderson is getting Forrest.

If Anderson moved permanently to LHW, the MW playing field becomes readjusted and would give us all something to talk about.

Thats BS Kevin.

Why are they giving him a title contender match up then??

Where does he go next after he beats Marquardt??

If that was the case they would be trying to sideline him like Okami.

One thing is Maia does sub people and is always in exciting fights.

I think Dana will just be expressing to both of them that they CANNOT have a repeat performance of the Leites fight and it will be all good.

I dont agree at all Kev. THe UFC loves Maia…he is totally different from Leites. Maia is used to training with that animal wanderlei, so i dont think he is afraid to stand with Anderson long enough to take him down, or just pull guard.

Kev: I will agree that I much rather see highly technical grappling chess matches instead of stand up battles….Like someone pointed out above…Maia is making jits exciting even to the casual fans that dont appreciate the ground game….Maia is going to be instrumental in educating the casual, blood thirsty fans of stand up battles…. the beauty of ju jitsu.

I dont agree at all Kev. THe UFC loves Maia…he is totally different from Leites. Maia is used to training with that animal wanderlei, so i dont think he is afraid to stand with Anderson long enough to take him down, or just pull guard.

Kev: I will agree that I much rather see highly technical grappling chess matches instead of stand up battles….Like someone pointed out above…Maia is making jits exciting even to the casual fans that dont appreciate the ground game….Maia is going to be instrumental in educating the casual, blood thirsty fans of stand up battles…. the beauty of ju jitsu.

MArquardt is far too well-rounded and strong to be beat by a BJJ Maia. I know his BJJ is as good as it gets, and that he translates it well into MMA, though he starts each round standing and I expect to see him take a serious beating standing. His hybrid style is very effective on the ground, but not standing. Either or, Nate has a fantastic ground game, that is sometimes overlooked and questioned. Even if it wasn’t as great as it is, the guy has strength of a LHW.
Marquardt will loosen Maia up standing, make his knees weak, and take the TKO finish in the 3rd.

Guys, Marquardt has only lost one round (maybe 2 if you give Thales the first round of their fight)in the UFC and it was to the Champion. Maia is great at BJJ, but their is no way Maia wins this fight. You guys should go back and watch the Maia vs Ed Herman fight. You will see much of the same except Nate is 10 times better than short fuse and wont make the mistake that Herman did towards the end. Maia was loosing that fight until he got the submission. I would like to see Maia fight Almeida. That would be a BJJ fight not to miss.

so who came up with this news first?? john was it you?? dont people brag about hearing stuff first? so who heard this first???
hope maia wins…without hurting anybody

I don’t think Maia wins this, Nate has more dimensions, unfortunetly.

And Newfie, a lot of time you can find news before outlets it’s not all that hard if you have some ins or even on forums.
However, if your not just some random some asshole and you a website, you have to have a substantiated source you also have to write a whole article and do the headers and graphics and what not.
You cant just post every thing you hear and post it in a comment page.

Thank you Jow and Shaiz, Nate is a WAY better fighter at this point. I think he wins this easy. A year from know we will see, but Maia is not half the mixed martial artist that marquardt is, and that is not opinion

I’m right there with you Alpha. Maia’s ground game is phenomenal. Unfortunately it will not be effective when he is on the ground because he gets dropped and is trying to pull guard while still dazed. Nate by tko. This will be a good learning experience for Maia. Not meaning that nate is gonna teach him a lesson in a trash talking sense. But I think maia will learn what areas he really needs to refine his game to be an elite fighter. Obviously his ground game is top notch.

That’s why it’s a good thing…

Nate has good submission defence but he’s never faced anyone with the BJJ skills of Demian Maia, if this fight goes to the ground then he’s done. Nate’s only hope of winning this fight will be to keep it standing and that is much easier said than done. War Maia, 09 is his year.

Maia’s only chance of winning this fight is getting it to the ground, easier said than done.. Maia has horrible standup

i wouldnt said that nate is done when the fight hits the ground, yes i can say that nate will be very close to loose if he is on his back but if he is on top i guarantee that he will GnP a little bit and then managed to get up and that will be the story of the fight with maia trying to pull guard like in the maia/sonnen fight(before that great TD of maia) and when he will try to set up TD he will get caught

Good point JoW, but the last place Nate wants to be in this fight is on the ground, even if he’s on top Maia is still very dangerous. He’s also shown that he can takedown good wrestlers and grapplers with sweeps, so Nate will have to work hard to keep the fight standing. Nate has looked fantastic in his last 2 fights but I don’t see anyone beating Maia for a long time, he is just too good on the ground.

u see maia winning and i see nate winning well lets just hope for a great fight!! i want like to see an improving striking game of maia i think that is the key if he wants to win this

“want to see”

Yeah mate this should be a great fight, both guys have never looked better. The winner deserves a title shot and I hope that Leites’ display won’t put Joe Silva off giving Demian his chance at Anderson. I’m hoping that Maia’s stand up will suprise a few people as right now that is the only hole in his game.

well from ufc 91 to ufc 95 we expected a big change and his striking still looked terrible. so i still expect the great to bully damian the whole fight and eventually get the tko

this is were u seperate the great bjj artist and the great fighters. maia is gona forget how 2 pull a submission wen he gets hit. But maia standup is geting better he is training wit wandy…lol the least technichal fighter in mma [tied with jardine] but wandy show hom how 2 swing wild and keep ur hands down and stick ut chin out it seens 2 be wrkin 4 him sinnce he returned. nate by peruvian neck tie lol or ko 2nd

exactly chael hit hit with a few good ones and chael is a terrible striker. the great will overwhelm him with strikes for sure