While UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva focuses his attention on a light heavyweight showdown against Forrest Griffin, the organization has booked an intriguing 185-pound bout between former contender Nate Marquardt (28-8-2) and Demian Maia (10-0) for UFC 102 in August. Maia confirmed the news on his official Web site late yesterday.The undefeated Maia was rumored to be next in line to face Silva for the middleweight title, but after Silva's second straight lackluster performance at UFC 97, the UFC decided to book him against fan favorite, Griffin.
Maia is a perfect 5-0 in the UFC, winning all of his fights via submission. In fact, four of his five victories won the "submission of the night" award. In February, he submitted former WEC middleweight contender, Chael Sonnen, in just 2:37 of the first round.
Meanwhile, since losing a UFC middleweight title fight to Anderson Silva in July 2007, Marquardt is 3-1. His lone defeat was against Silva's latest opponent, Thales Leites. Since then, Marquardt has looked more aggressive in his last two fights, TKO victories over Martin Kampmann and Wilson Gouveia.
This fight makes a lot more sense to me than booking Silva vs. Maia right away. The UFC needs to buy some time while a clear-cut No. 1 contender emerges in the middleweight division. In a perfect world, a Michael Bisping victory over Dan Henderson at UFC 100, followed by a Maia victory over Marquardt would set the division up nicely for late 2009 and early 2010. If Bisping wins, the UFC can book him against Silva in the UK. That fight would easily sell out any arena across the pond. Then, several months later, fans will finally be ready to view Maia as worthy of a title shot.
If Henderson and/or Marquardt wins, the UFC is left with a difficult choice to make: Should it award another title shot to a contender who already lost to Silva in the past? Sure, both Henderson and Marquardt put up a fight against Silva, but in the end, he did finish them with relative ease. Count me as one of those who has no interest in seeing a Silva rematch against either one of those fighters. Been there, done that.
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Marqardt is a different fighter
I dont know if he will beat Maia but I would like to see him get another chance vs silva.
He his big
He will take the fight to Silva
He his with a great team
He is much better then when they first meet
ok lets say silva beats griffen, his next opponet should be the loser of machida/evans if silva looses the griffen fight he should go back to 185 and get ready for GSP, anyone agree?
I think Hendo beats Bisping. I also think Silva doesn't want to fight Machida because he looses that fight with Machida KO'ing Silva.
Silva has much more interesting match ups in LHW, GSP just isn't big enough to be competive with Silva.
Silva has stated publicly that he will not fight Machida because they are friends and he feels that the light heavyweight belt belongs to Lyoto. Seeing GSP bulk up to 185 is an interesting prospect, perhaps even scary. Imagine if Anderson Silva dropped to 170! He would look like an Ethiopean! LOL!
If that fight ever happens, it will likely be a 3 round catchweight fight. 177-180 probably.
Hopefully we will get to see Maia strike a little bit in this fight. Marquardt should be able to handle himself on the ground with Maia. Well, maybe ... Maia's BJJ is sooo good.
We are going to find out just how good Maia is in this fight.
Anderson Silva did fight Yushin Okami at Rumble on the Rocks at 174 pounds. And yes we will find out how Demain Maia. This could be one hell of a ground battle. I don't think Maia would be able to hang with Nate on the feet. But like I said before, in this sport you never know.
This is the fight that should happen to determine the Spider's next opponent. Marquardt's overall game is awesome, but I believe Maia's BJJ is off the charts. I personally think Maia puts this away once it hits the ground.
ufc says this is the right thing to do,due to the second lackluster performance from anderson silva OK! he didn't perform well standing with cote, then performs poorly against leites Is silva really the pound for pound best? i think they're a few fighters who can bring it 2 silva maia for one he's been ready, cung le (strikeforce)champion , gsp vs silva would be a great match-up 4 sure to test the questionable pound for pound best silva