Demian Maia still hopeful for a title shot despite 'tremendous error' against Nate Marquardt

I second this.

Oh, I would just love to see Maia take Bizzzzzping’s back, sink the hooks in , and then nail the rear naked choke…see that cocky Brit struggle for a few seconds till he is bright red..then tap the night away….

we can’t have everything in life, that would be too perfect! Hendo’s starching is still fresh in my mind, let me enjoy that for another 6 months, then lets hope Bisping beats Kang, and wants of piece of Wand.

Good call NNR both Maia and Bisping are coming of huge KO losses and need to get back in contention and you can not totally count Kane out but I don’t like his chances.

Same here NNR, Maia is a horrible match-up for either Bisping or Kang. Demian will have no problems taking Bisping down and submitting him and won’t be in danger of a flash KO because Bisping isn’t a hard hitter while Kang has made a career of blowing fights by making mistakes against BJJ specialists. A dominant win over either of them would put him right back in the mix.

I’m a big Maia fan, he’s a classy guy who makes no excuses and shows respect to all of his opponents as well as the sport, plus his BJJ is the best in the sport. Hopefully he has learnt from the mistakes made in the Nate fight and will continue to work on his striking technique so he doesn’t get counterpunched again. He has a lot to work on but I’m confident that he’ll continue to improve and if he can beat some big names, starting with the Bisping-Kang winner, then he will be right back at the top of the division. Good luck to him, he’s an excellent role model and an exciting mixed martial artist.

Maia was exposed last fight and will continue to lose to any one with decent TDD. He is cream of the crop on the ground, but bottom of the barrel standing. He should be middle of the pack fighter from here on out. Too easy to gameplan against.

Suck me solid bro

I tend to agree with David on this but if he’s too one dimensional it’s just inevitable that he’s going to get dropped again. I like watching Maia fight and have become a fan but I’d like to see him strengthen his stand up or at least become good enough at it to set up those takedowns. He’s phenomenal on the ground but as we’ve all heard Rogan say time and time again, “Fights start standing up”.

The thing i like best about Maia is his meticulous technique- that effortless invisible jui jitsu that Rickson and saulo preach. And he’s transferring that mentality to his striking. He clearly saw that his error was a technical one and not a lapse in judgement or mental thing or coincidence/bad luck for that matter.

Jay – Maia’s TD defense wasn’t exposed, his striking was but regardless his wrestling game is deceptively technical and really hard to stop. Sonnen is literally an Olympic caliber wrestler- you saw what he did to Dan Miller yet he got lateral dropped on his head. If he goes for takedowns he always finishes them not by powering but by cutting corners and by pulling half guard to trap the leg.

Maia is easily one of my favorite fighters to watch. I really do believe that he will be a serious contender for the middleweight title for years to come.

I just cant wait to hear who they match him up against next. I would kind of like to see If Maia’s jits can catch Yushin Okami who is infamous for being able to control opponents! I wanted to see Maia/almeida, but Riccardo is dropping down to WW, where he will be a beats!

He has a better shot at beating gsp than beating silva. Gsp would have to keep it on the feet for once because if he took it to the ground maia would have gsp tapping.

I don’t think he would tap GSP. GSP has excellent BJJ defence. Not that he would need it, the odds of Maia taking GSP down or knocking him out are slim to none. GSP would kill Maia 99 times out of 100.

Nah its more like 70 out of 100, gsp cant help but take fights to the ground these days and maia could just pull guard. GSP doesnt have one punch ko power like Nate and gsp may have good bjj defence but maia is on another level. This fight is alot closer than 99 out of 100.

GSP’s bjj defense is a little overrated. Yes he did smash BJ but i can’t seem to get the image of him getting flying armbarred by Leo Santos in ADCC. Also BJ is a sweep to take back and sub kinda guys, he doesn’t really attack from the bottom. I think GSP would win but Maia’s BJJ would by far be the most dangerous he will have faced.

99 outta 100?! Gimme a break. MMa guru’s figure is more accurate…

LJ, you are correct he would destroy Maia standing. Way too fast for him. I think that guy meant one punch people, as in knock people out with one punch.

Slovak- The fight did go five rounds, and you are indeed correct on GSP’s fights lasting to the later rounds. It may be more of an indication of his competition though. His fights w/ Fitch and Alves went 5, but he finished Serra and Hughes early. Maia’s BJJ makes him a dangerous opponent for anyone!

The fact of the matter is he needs to work on his stand up REGARDLESS of his weight class. I think he should at least be testing the waters (at the gym) with trying to cut down to 170.

And even though his stand up is clearly lagging his ground game, I dont think we were able to see much of it in his last fight, apart from his 3 kicks (which he admits was a huge mistake).

Okami would get a shot if he wouldn’t stay injured all the time.