Saturday, February 20, 2010

Maia vs Silva: Perfect Example of Irony


I apologize for the late blog guys, had this written from time but was unable to post it up due to a hectic week. Dropping another one later and one more tomorrow to make up for it haha.

For those who are not aware, there has been a huge change to UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi. Due to an ailing injury , Vitor Belfort has been forced out of his title bout against Anderson Silva. Sadly, this is the third time this fight has been thrown out due to injury. This has forced the UFC to run through different options in order to keep Anderson Silva defending his title on this very pricy event (UFC sold part of its ownership to Flash Entertainment of Dubai in order to get the event in Abu Dhabi). Due to various injuries, the UFC was able to come up with the man to fight Anderson Silva for the belt: Demian Maia.

Trust me when I say, I have nothing but respect for Demian Maia and would love to see the upset. But let’s face it, this is another Thales Leites vs Anderson Silva. Demian Maia has shown some improvement in developing a stand up game but not at the level to contend with a striker like Anderson Silva. Another significant factor that does not help the situation is that Maia improvement in his stand up came from training with Lil Nog, an option that is now clearly unavailable considering Lil Nog is a training partner of Anderson Silva. Maia’s best chance in this fight will be on the ground, a place where Anderson Silva can handle his own but has the obvious advantage in the stand up. It’s very interesting how this fight will be built up, considering many have already began to refer to this fight as a classic UFC fight with a top grappler fighting a top striker. However, on a side note,  I found it very unnecessary for the UFC to refer to Demian Maia as a top 6 middleweight. Clearly, we in the MMA world only refer to lists in increments of 5; rather it is top 10 , top 5 or top 20. This fact narrows down that they feel Maia is the number 6 middleweight in the world. I understand that it is hard to find a fighter in short notice, but don’t short sell a guy like that, ESPECIALLY, when this fight is going to be the Main Event. Mention the fact he is the Best Submission fighter in MMA today, his multiple “submission of the night” awards but nothing devalues a main event when the promoting company does not even sound optimistic over their selection.

The UFC middleweight division has definitely been nothing close from sound over the past year. In 2009, we have seen the title of “number one contender” change 3 times. Initially, it was understood that Michael “The Count” Bisping and Dan Henderson , after this time on the Ultimate Fighter television series, were fighting for the next crack at Anderson Silva. After a stunning second round knock out by Dan Henderson at UFC 100, we began talking about Silva vs Henderson 2. However, it was , coincidentally, Nate Marquardt’s one punch knockout on Maia at  that had Dana White stating Marquardt is now the number one contender. If this situation wasn’t confusing enough, after his knockout victory on Rich Franklin at UFC 103, Vitor Belfort was announced to be getting the next title shot at UFC 108. Since this moment, we have seen Dan Henderson leave the UFC for Strikeforce due to this whole title shot situation/contract dispute and Nate Marquardt drop in rank after a recent loss to Chael Sonnen. For the record, Chael Sonnen would have been the best candidate for Belfort’s replacement but a suspension until March 23rd due to injuries after his 3 round battle with Marquardt would not give him enough time to prepare. Quite the shame considering the current back and forth verbal bashes going on between Sonnen and Anderson Silva’s manager, Ed Soares/ Sonnen’s recent fight creates the idea that Sonnen may have the tools to beat Silva. Another option could have been the winner of this upcoming weekends fight between Wanderlei Silva vs Michael Bisping, of course, if the fight ended in the first round with no medical suspension.

After looking back on the build up to this troublesome predicament......Henderson gone to Strikeforce....Marquardt now not a top contender...........all for Vitor Belfort to pull out due to injury and the UFC being limited to selecting Demian Maia as a replacement, Maia vs Silva is a perfect example of irony.






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