Author: By Thomas Gerbasi

Less than 50 miles away from the notorious nightlife of Miami, Boca Raton, Florida is the current training home of some of mixed martial arts’ top contenders, guys like Rashad Evans, Anthony Johnson, Jorge Santiago, and Antonio Silva, JZ Cavalcante. Joining them is Missouri native Michael Johnson, who, at 24 years old, is the youngest and least seasoned of the group.

Normally, that would be a recipe for disaster. But Johnson doesn’t play to stereotypes. Despite being young and subject to all the same temptations his peers have, he’s in the Sunshine State on business, and he’s not about to lose sight of that.

“I can definitely stay grounded,” he said. “I’m in this sport for a goal, and that’s to be a champ, so I can easily ward off the temptation to go out and instead I get my mind focused on the fight. I think it makes you stronger mentally. You get some people that see the temptations and they can’t help it, and they go out to clubs and they want to party all the time. Plus, everybody down here helps, so as long as everybody’s down here motivating me, I can stay focused on the goal at hand, and it’s easy to stay away from the temptations.”

Initially heading to the Imperial Athletics gym to wrestle with Cavalcante, who is preparing for his Strikeforce bout this Saturday against Justin Wilcox, Johnson – who has his own bout coming up against Edward Faaloloto on the June 26th UFC on Versus card – liked what he saw there, and decided to stay.

“I came down to wrestle with JZ and help him get ready for a fight, and everything just clicked,” he said. “It was one of those things where I saw the coaches that were brought in, I saw the other fighters that were down here, and everybody was down here to help. It’s such a family environment, and it’s Florida, so why not make the move? I just decided to run with it and it’s working out for me.”

What may even be more important than the work he gets in the gym is the knowledge he picks up outside of it. Approaching just his second fight in the Octagon, Johnson is still a work in progress when it comes to dealing with life on the big stage that the UFC provides. Sure, he got a crash course in the bright lights from his time on The Ultimate Fighter’s 12th season, but fighters like Evans, Rumble Johnson, and Santiago know better than most what it takes to survive in the UFC. And that advice is as welcome as an escape to a triangle choke.

“I get advice from those guys and I can take so much more from them being a young fighter in this game and trying to get to the level that they are,” said Johnson. “The way they carry themselves, the way they take training and everything, I just try to mirror those steps. Rashad has been a world champ and he’ll be a world champ again, Anthony’s working his way up to be a world champ, and Jorge as well, so just to be around those guys makes me a better fighter.”

He’s already proven himself to have the raw talent to succeed. It’s those rough edges that need to be smoothed out, and that was never more evident than in his TUF12 finale bout against Jonathan Brookins last December.

For five minutes, he was brilliant, rocking Brookins on a number of occasions and looking like he was about to score a spectacular knockout win. He wasn’t the only one who thought that, and while it wasn’t a 10-8 round, it was probably as close as you were going to get to one without pulling the trigger.

As Johnson walked back to his corner, he thought just one thing:

“How the hell is he still in this?”

“The Menace” wasn’t discouraged though. He figured he would just keep on doing what he did in the first round, close the show, and walk off with a UFC contract and a trophy for the mantelpiece.

“The second round came and I said, ‘well, we’ll just have to do it all over again for another five minutes,’” he said. “And I kinda got caught up in that, got taken down and things could have gone differently, but I’m working on all those weaknesses that happened in that fight.”

The weaknesses showed when the veteran took Johnson off his feet and kept him there throughout rounds two and three. It was a stirring comeback for Brookins, who took a three round unanimous decision win and the TUF12 title, and a disappointing loss for Johnson, who nonetheless refused to dwell on the defeat. Instead, it was back to the gym to sew up the holes in his game.

“You just go back to the drawing board and work on the things that happened in that fight that caused me to lose, and that’s getting off my back and really buckling down and working on my takedown defense and jiu-jitsu and grappling, all day every day,” he said. “That’s what it’s been since December and I’ve definitely improved in those aspects of the game.”

As for dealing with the rest of the things that can take a young fighter underwater and drown him, like the first time UFC jitters, Johnson passed with flying colors.

“I’m the type of fighter that feeds off that energy,” he said. “I loved going in there with all eyes on me and Jonathan in the middle of the cage, with the lights flashing and the cameras out. I love fighting in that environment and that’s exactly what I feed off of.”

On June 26th, he gets to do it again in Pittsburgh, and while there’s not a lot of footage on Hawaii’s Faaloloto outside of his WEC loss to Anthony Njokuani, Johnson has worn out the tape watching that bout and preparing for this pivotal step in his young career.

“It’s definitely hard to get a read on him, but I’ve watched that (Njokuani) fight over and over again,” he said. “That fight was in November, and I don’t know if he’s changed as a fighter or not, but as long as I stay focused on my game and what I need to do to win that fight, I think everything will be fine.”

And that’s what life is in South Florida for Michael Johnson. No parties, no late nights, no club hopping. It’s about taking things further than he has before and beating his toughest opponent every day.

“I’m in this game to get better,” he said. “I’m not looking over Edward, but I’m planning on going in there and getting a win, and after that, turn around and fight again. I would love to get in three fights before this year is over with. The lightweight division is packed with guys, and I just can’t wait to really break into this division and show the UFC and the world that I can definitely be a top competitor. So the rest of this year is just about me getting better and trying to beat the Michael Johnson that was in the gym yesterday.”

Anderson Silva. Yushin Okami. Chael Sonnen. Demian Maia. Rousimar Palhares. Dan Miller. It’s a Who’s Who of UFC middleweights, and the one thing they all have in common is fighting Nate Marquardt.

And whether he won or lost against the aforementioned foes, just being in with that gang of stalwarts is an impressive feat for Nate “The Great.” But at 32 and with more than five years in the division, was the prospect of having to go through at least a few of those names again to get to Silva and another shot at the title going to be worth it, especially since he was feeling good and in range to make welterweight?

This Sunday in Pittsburgh, you get your answer, as Marquardt is making his 170 pound debut against Rick Story in the main event of UFC Live on Versus. It’s not a case of the Coloradan being chased out of the division on a loss or two, as he’s coming off an impressive win over Miller at UFC 128. Instead, it’s an opportunity to have a whole new set of options that aren’t just intriguing for him, but for fans of the sport.

“There’s a ton of guys to fight at welterweight and it’s all new and exciting,” said Marquardt. “The fans are gonna love to see fights like me against (Josh) Koscheck, me against (Jon) Fitch, Anthony Johnson and (Thiago) Alves, and of course Rick Story, the guy who just beat Alves. Those are all very exciting fights and it’s one of the big reasons why I’m moving down, to put on exciting fights for the fans.”

The other reason is that he had grown tired of the years of putting on weight, as opposed to losing it, in order to compete. It’s a problem many fighters wish they had, but Marquardt, more than 12 years into a career that began in 1999, made the decision that while he has the skill and experience to fight anywhere, he’s going to do so at as close to his natural weight as possible.

“I feel I can be successful at really any weight,” he said. “For me, it’s just a number. I feel as strong as any heavyweight and as fast as any lightweight. I feel that if needed I can put weight on or I can take it off, but I feel the best walking around at my natural weight. I think at ’85 I was trying to hold weight on because I was competing with guys who were cutting down from 215, and I think that was the wrong approach. Even if I were to fight at ’85, I would probably be one of the lightest middleweights, and that’s how I would fight best. So it wasn’t something that I had been thinking about for a while; I tried walking around lighter for my last fight and I loved it, and all my coaches agreed. And (UFC welterweight champ) Georges St-Pierre was the first one who recommended it to me last December when we were training for his fight with Koscheck. He asked me ‘why don’t you consider fighting at welterweight,’ and I said ‘I never really thought about it. You’re my teammate and you’re the champ there,’ and he’s like ‘man, you should really consider that. I think you’re better at a lighter weight and you can perform better.’”

It begs the question, what took so long?

“There was a point where the money and the way to make a living were in the higher weight divisions,” he said. “There was light heavyweight and heavyweight. And that’s changed and all the weight groups at this point have very exciting fights and very big names. And not only that, but it was just something I wasn’t focused on. I was doing well at middleweight and even after my last fight, I was very successful. But this is something where I feel I’m gonna be able to perform better with my body at a lighter weight. I feel faster, have way better stamina, I can push harder, and mentally I feel like I did when I was 20 years old.”

The one thing that has changed since he was 20 and beginning a long string of success in Japan’s Pancrase organization is that the lead up to a bout is no longer something that leaves him with butterflies in his stomach that turn into flying elephants come fight night. Sure, he still gets nerves, just like any fighter, but those feelings get wiped out by anticipation when it’s time to get ready for battle.

“It’s kinda cool because in the beginning, I was very excited and very nervous at the same time, and obviously the good part of that is the excitement part and the bad part would be if your nerves got out of control and you let them control you,” he said. “And there came a point where the excitement was not gone, but the nervousness overwhelmed the excitement. But I think at this point in my career, I’m focused on the excitement and I’m not really nervous. I have a little bit of nerves, but I’m just excited. I feel ready to go, I’ve done everything I can, I’ve trained a hundred percent, I’m in excellent shape and I’m excited to go out and put on a performance. It’s like being a kid and being a week out from your birthday or Christmas.”

His present on Sunday isn’t one most would like to unwrap, as rising star Story is the kind of opponent that will leave you knowing that you’ve been in a fight even when you win. Originally, Marquardt was scheduled to face “Rumble” Johnson, but injury sidelined the knockout artist. In stepped Story on not just short notice, but reallllllyyy short notice, as he is just coming off his UFC 130 win over Alves last month. Marquardt was obviously happy that Story stepped up and saved the main event, but did the veteran think in the back of his head, ‘how dare this kid think he can beat me on less than a month’s notice?’

Marquardt laughs.

“I was definitely thankful,” he said. “I even sent him a tweet to thank him for taking the fight. He’s a young guy, he’s hungry, and it doesn’t surprise me at all that someone’s gonna take the fight. It’s a chance to be the main event and fight a guy like me who has a bigger name. If it was a more seasoned vet kind of guy, they’re not gonna take the fight in most cases because they have more to lose than to gain. But he’s in a win-win situation. He’s a new kid on the block, he’s on a six fight winning streak, and he’s looking at a lot of opportunities.”

“And he’s young,” Marquardt continues. “He doesn’t understand that he should be doing a full camp to fight a guy like me. Earlier in my career, and I’ve even done the mistake more recently, you fight guys and you have success early on in your career on short notice, but it’s different when you’re fighting a guy of a higher caliber who has more experience than you, and I think that’s definitely gonna be a factor, but I don’t know if it’s necessarily something that would have made a difference if he had a full camp.”

That’s a veteran’s confidence, and Nate Marquardt has already seen and done it all in the fight game with one exception – now he’s going to do it at 170 pounds. And the way he looks at it, Sunday night is going to be the start of something big, and he’s glad Story is the one who’s going to help him kick it off.

“He (Story) brawls, he has a very aggressive style and he likes to swing for the fences, and I like to put on a show and go for the knockouts and the submissions,” said Marquardt. “We both can be very aggressive fighters, and that’s what the fans want to see.”

There is no mistaking who Shane Carwin is when he steps into the Octagon. There are no flying armbars, no laying and praying, no squeaking out a win on the judges’ scorecards. In honor of middleweight boxing great Marvin Hagler, let’s just say that Carwin’s only motive is to destruct and destroy.

And through 12 professional mixed martial arts fights, no one did it better than the native of Greeley, Colorado, a veritable force of nature with mallets for fists. So when he rocked Brock Lesnar in the first round of their UFC heavyweight championship bout last July, there were no thoughts of restraint, patience, or moderation.

Destruct and Destroy.

“The type of fighter that I am, I’m not going out there to score points, I’m going out there to try to wreck that guy,” said Carwin, who saw the undisputed heavyweight championship belt flashing before his eyes as Lesnar staggered and tried to shake loose the cobwebs.

What followed was the usual Carwin assault, one that had already finished off Frank Mir, Gabriel Gonzaga, Neil Wain, and Christian Wellisch in UFC fights alone. Punch after punch rained down on Lesnar, and just when you thought it was over, the champion would do just enough to keep referee Josh Rosenthal from stepping in.

“The thing is that I had been there previously in all my fights, and I just go for the kill,” said Carwin. “And that’s what I did. Rosenthal said on multiple times, ‘Brock, you’ve got to show me something or I’m gonna stop the fight.’ When you hear that as the top guy, you try to pick up the pace to make the ref jump in and stop it, and it was a relentless pace there for a while. I just didn’t get the stoppage.”

It’s what Carwin was built for and what brought him to the top of the heavyweight division. He didn’t make it there by taking a wait and see approach when he hurt an opponent. But Lesnar weathered the furious storm and did this enough between barrages to hear the bell to end the first round. He didn’t know that the fight was already over.

“When I came out for that second round, there was nothing there,” said Carwin, and 2:19 into round two, Lesnar submitted him with an arm triangle choke and retained his title. In Lesnar’s next fight, he was stopped in the first round by Cain Velasquez.

Carwin’s next bouts would be with a surgeon’s knife and a segment of the fanbase that turned on him because of his cardio. First came the post-fight attacks, which strangely weren’t as widespread when Gray Maynard admittedly gassed out after an equally furious first round attack on Frankie Edgar in their UFC 125 main event. But to the critics, Carwin’s track record in fights going past the first round – 0-1 – was grounds enough to question everything about his training regimen.

“It’s to be expected,” said Carwin. “I think Cain (Velasquez) took a carbon copy of that fight, and he picked his shots better to finish the fight. That’s probably what I need to learn and take away from it. But we redid some things and you always want to make yourself a better fighter moving forward. Otherwise the rest of the field is gonna catch you.”

But was Carwin in need of fixing? Anyone in the heavyweight division who gets an opponent hurt and then empties his clip in search of a knockout should have been praised, not ridiculed, and which of Carwin’s peers, with the exception of maybe Velasquez, would have come out fresher than he did for round two?

That’s a question that can only be answered in the Octagon, but for now, Carwin is leaner, more streamlined, and healthier for his return this Saturday against Junior dos Santos, and healthier is the key element he has in his back pocket in Vancouver thanks to a Foraminotomy procedure to relieve pressure on his C5, C6 and C7 vertebrae. It was a surgery that was a long time coming.

“Functionality-wise on the right side of my body, I kept getting treated and we were trying to work through some muscle issues on the right side, but they were in fact nerve problems in the muscles,” he explains. “There’s a lot less pain on that side, I have full grip strength in my right arm, and that knot that was always in the middle of my back is gone as well, which is nice. I wouldn’t say that I was super limited, but when you have numbness, and you can feel the pins and needles in your fingers all the time, you know something’s not right.”

So finally, in November of last year, he went under the knife wielded by Dr. Chad Prusmack, and everything went smoothly, though with any surgery, there are risks and concerns.

“I saw one of the best doctors around, he’s the surgeon for the Denver Broncos, Dr. Prusmack, and he’s a very competent man, which made me feel confident,” said Carwin. “When I went into the surgery, I didn’t know a lot of the details, which was probably good, but they bolted a cage on to my head to make sure I wasn’t moving or anything. Of course after I was out, those were some of the worst parts. When I got done, I think you could see my skull where those bolts were put into my head. But once I was out of surgery, I could tell right away that the numbness was out of my arm.”

Now if you thought Carwin was scary before, just think of him now, firing on all cylinders with no medical issues. He must feel like a 25 year old now, right?

“I don’t know if I feel like a 25 year old,” he laughs. “Maybe I feel like a 36 year old and not a 50 year old.”

This 36 year old will be back in the Octagon this weekend, but dos Santos wasn’t his original dance partner and he wasn’t supposed to be fighting for a shot at Velasquez’ crown. Initially, newcomer John-Olav Einemo was scheduled to trade hands with him until Lesnar was forced to pull out of his bout with dos Santos due to another attack of diverticulitis.

“We had to look him up, but of course coach (Amal) Easton knew who he was right away,” said Carwin of Einemo, who will now face fellow UFC debutant Dave Herman. “He’s an Abu Dhabi champ and he’s world class. He was on top of the heap for a while, and I think he had some injuries that set him back, so I think he was a very formidable opponent, and I’m excited to see what he can do in the UFC.”

Not as excited as Carwin was when he got the call offering him the dos Santos fight. Not only does he get a title shot with a win, but given his previous back problems, do you want to worry about someone just trying to punch you in the face all night (dos Santos), or do you want to face a submission specialist intending to twist every limb in the opposite direction. Yeah, dos Santos it is.

“I feel like you don’t get a lot of these opportunities in life, and this is a great opportunity,” said Carwin, who cites not being there for his teammates and their training camps as the thing he missed the most while on the sidelines. “It gives me a chance to go out there and perform and do something that I love. Dos Santos is a top ten guy in the world, and I think this is the fourth top ten guy I’ve fought in a row.”

It is, and after showing that he could beat (Mir, Gonzaga) and hang with (Lesnar) the previous three, he has to be feeling confident in his chances against “Cigano.” Throw in the fact that dos Santos’ bombs couldn’t dent the chin of Roy Nelson last August, and that’s another point in Carwin’s favor, right? Well, he’s not about to dismiss his opponent’s punching power and the rest of his game just yet.

“Nelson has an iron chin, and dos Santos is the real deal,” said Carwin. “I think he’s real well-rounded, very difficult to take down, and nobody’s ever really got to see his jiu-jitsu on the ground. He’s worked with (Antonio Rodrigo) Nogueira so you know he’s gonna be well-versed and his striking and his speed is the top of the heap in the heavyweight division.”

Will he give Carwin his wish and stand with him though?

“I think dos Santos has got that attitude,” he said. “He’s full of confidence right now and he’s been destroying people. When I see dos Santos and his attitude, I think he would stand and bang with anybody.”

Dos Santos + Carwin = Destruct + Destroy.

That’s the kind of math this Colorado engineer enjoys best.

UFC 131, which is headlined by the heavyweight bout between Junior dos Santos and Shane Carwin and the featherweight battle between Kenny Florian and Diego Nunes, airs live on Pay-Per-View from Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada at 9pm ET / 6pm PT. Fans can also tune in to Spike TV at 8pm ET / 5pm PT to see live UFC 131 preliminary bouts, and those who “like” the UFC on Facebook can see the rest of the prelim bouts at 5:50 pm ET / 2:50 pm PT*.

MAIN EVENT
Junior dos Santos (239) vs. Shane Carwin (254)

PPV
Kenny Florian (146) vs. Diego Nunes (145)
Mark Munoz (186) vs. Demian Maia (186)
John-Olav Einemo (261) vs. Dave Herman (233)
Donald Cerrone (155) vs. Vagner Rocha (155)

SPIKE TV PRELIMS
Yves Edwards (155) vs. Sam Stout (155)
Chris Weidman (186) vs. Jesse Bongfeldt (185)

ONLINE FIGHTS
Jason Young (145) vs. Dustin Poirier (146)
Mike Massenzio (201) vs. Krzysztof Soszynski (205)
James Head (186) vs. Nick Ring (185)
Aaron Rosa (261) vs. Joey Beltran (247)
Darren Elkins (145) vs. Michihiro Omigawa (145)

*The prelims will also stream live on Heavy.com, Versus.com, Rivals.com, Foxsports.com and the USA Today website.

The line in Dave Herman’s UFC bio was an interesting one. The question, “when and why did you start training for fighting?”

Herman’s response? “I started training for fighting about two years ago.”

Now I know my math isn’t perfect, but considering that Herman made his pro debut with a first round TKO of Mike Cooke in December of 2006, that would mean that he probably started training sometime that year or before.

2011 – 2006 = five years, right?

Wrong, because the way “Pee Wee” Herman sees it, he didn’t begin taking the fight game seriously until he traveled to Saitama, Japan in January of 2009 and got a two round drubbing at the hands of Choi Mu Bae. It was his first loss in 16 pro fights, and the first 13 of 15 wins came with him not even training like a true professional or having a consistent team by his side. In fact, his gym doubled as a basement.

That’s impressive stuff from the former Indiana University wrestler, who garnered some significant buzz during his winning streak. And though he wasn’t beating killers in his early days, he was finishing everyone in his path, and he even notched wins over UFC vets Ron Waterman and Kerry Schall.

But then Choi Mu Bae spoiled the party, letting Herman know that if he wanted to be a success in this game, pure talent wasn’t enough.

Less than four months later, he returned to action with a first round TKO of Josh Barnes, and as he went on a globetrotting tour that took him to Tokyo (twice) and Abu Dhabi, as well as Texas and Louisiana, he defeated Don Frye and Yoshihiro Nakao and only lost once, via disqualification to Rameau Sokoudjou in May of 2010. Eventually, the biggest development came when he landed with Team Quest in Temecula, California, home to MMA star Dan Henderson.

So with a 20-2 record, a marketable and quirky sense of humor, a wide array of off-the-wall attacks (at least off-the-wall for a heavyweight), and a steady team backing him, there was just one place left for Herman to land, and that was the UFC, which signed him earlier this year.

“It’s a great opportunity,” he said. “The UFC is the largest and best promotion in the world. I’m looking forward to fighting some of the best guys in the world.”

On Saturday, following a switch from original opponent Joey Beltran, he will began his Octagon journey with a three rounder against Norwegian submission specialist John-Olav Einemo.

“I don’t really know a lot about Einemo,” admits Herman. “It looks like he has fought some tough competition and is obviously a world class grappler. It should be a good fight.”

A black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu who owns a grappling win over Roger Gracie, Einemo (7-1) is a member of the same Golden Glory team that has produced Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem. But he is 35 and hasn’t been in an MMA fight since 2006.

That would point all the advantages in favor of the 26-year old Herman, whose most recent fight was the decision win over Nakao last December. But Einemo is a submission expert, he’s 6-foot-6, 253 pounds, and he just survived a training camp with Overeem, so he’s more than dangerous.

Back in January of 2009 though, Herman would have looked at this fight on paper and said, ‘easy work.’ These days, he knows what it takes to win, and it’s more than what carried him through the two years of his career. It takes talent, dedication, a good team, and determination. Dave Herman has all of those in his back pocket. Now it’s time to show them off to the world.

Demian Maia isn’t scared anymore. Admittedly, the submission wizard approached his first few fights in the UFC with a single-minded purpose: get the fight to the ground and finish it before his opponent or the referee could stand it back up. Nothing more, nothing less.

“In the first fights, I was so nervous to stand up that when I took the guys down, I was doing everything and spending all my energy to submit them because I was afraid to get the fight stood up,” he said.

Early on, it worked like a charm. Five fights, five wins, five submissions of Ryan Jensen, Ed Herman, Jason MacDonald, Nate Quarry, and Chael Sonnen. As the saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Nate Marquardt broke it, knocking Maia out in 21 seconds at UFC 102 in August of 2009. It was the Sao Paulo native’s first pro loss, and while he had been training the rest of his game all along, now he knew that he needed to step it up even more.

“My plan since I started in the UFC was to be champion one day, and I know that to be a champion, you need to develop everything that you can,” he said. “But when I first started in the UFC, I was very raw standup-wise and my game was basically jiu-jitsu. I almost didn’t have any boxing – I had three months of boxing training. But I knew it was something I needed to work on because I knew one day I would need it. So I started at that time and kept growing.”

In his next bout six months later, against Jersey-tough Dan Miller, Maia showed off the early stages of his evolution with a three round unanimous decision win. Fate would intervene next, when an injury to Vitor Belfort opened the door for Maia to step in and challenge countryman Anderson Silva for the middleweight title at UFC 112 in April of 2010.

If he hadn’t learned his standup lessons, it would have been a short night, but instead, Maia went the distance with the pound-for-pound king before losing a unanimous decision. It was far from a memorable bout because of Silva’s controversial showboating antics, but if you do look back at it, refer to Maia’s gutsy charges in the last two rounds as he went far away from his gameplan in an effort to turn the fight around and actually make a fight out of it.

“I think that was the most important fight of my life,” said Maia. “At the beginning, we had a strategy for the fight, me and my coaches. We were just gonna wait for him to come, and then shoot for the double or the single, or clinch for the takedown. But the problem was during the first three rounds, especially in the second round, he was controlling me very well with single jabs and single kicks, not combos. So it was very hard for me because he knows how to use his reach and his distance. But at one point I said my strategy’s not working and I was not able to clinch, so I said ‘okay, if I’m gonna lose, let’s try my best.’”

In terms of his career, it was a game changer.

“In that fight, I learned that sometimes you have a strategy, but when you feel it’s not working, you have to change, and you can’t just stay in that strategy. And after that I was pretty confident that I was fighting against the best fighter in the world, but I knew if I could have changed my strategy a little bit, I could have done much better.”

Despite his strong finish late, the negative connotations attached to the bout didn’t exactly earn him the credit he deserved. But in his mind, Maia had turned the corner as a fighter, and going five rounds with Silva didn’t hurt either.

“If I was a runner, I think I would be a long-distance runner, not like a 100 meter runner,” he said. “So for me, there was no problem going five rounds. I think I grow better during a fight, and it was a good experience, especially with the best fighter in the world.”

Thus began the road back, and since then, he has won two in a row, pounding out convincing, workmanlike decision wins over Mario Miranda and Kendall Grove. Saturday night in Vancouver, he looks for three in a row against his toughest foe since Silva, surging Mark Munoz.

“He’s a tough wrestler and an experienced athlete,” said Maia of ‘The Filipino Wrecking Machine.’ “He doesn’t have a lot of MMA fights but he has a lot of wrestling matches, so I think he’s a very experienced competitor. He also has very heavy hands.”

It’s a classic match of styles and one of the most highly-anticipated bouts on the UFC 131 card. Does Maia feel the weight of expectations on his shoulders?

“In the UFC, there’s always big pressure, it doesn’t matter who you fight,” he said. “When you fight in the biggest event in the world, with the biggest crowd, it’s always big pressure, but I know how to deal with that. It’s not a problem. For me, it’s just being prepared and ready for the fight. The rest I know how to deal with.”

And now he can say that he can not only deal with fellow jiu-jitsu fighters and wrestlers, but with strikers as well. It’s a pleasant development for the decorated BJJ black belt, who admits that he’s enjoyed the entire ride from one-dimensional submission artist to well-rounded MMA fighter.

“Because I love to train, I don’t think there’s any difficult part,” he said. “It’s just a matter of time. I’m a much better grappler than striker, so it just takes more time for me to get the striking, but it’s coming. I love this sport. I love to box, I love to wrestle, I love to grapple, so for me there are no hard things.”

What he will say though, and he says it with a smile, is that he’s been getting itchy to score his first submission win since the Sonnen fight in February of 2009. That’s more than two long years, and he’s feeling just about due.

“That (winning by submission) is what I want to do for sure and that’s something I’m looking for,” he said. “The thing is that I’ve been developing my standup game and I think something happened inside my mind. Now I’m much more relaxed when I go to the ground because if the fight gets stood up again, I will be able to fight standing up. But I know I will get the balance again and I will start to submit my opponents again.”