Georges St-Pierre is making his Octagon return at 185 pounds, forgoing a return at his former championship division of welterweight, and nobody is happier about that decision than Demian Maia.
The Brazilian is currently on a six-fight win streak over names such as Neil Magny, Gunnar Nelson, Matt Brown, and Carlos Condit. Maia has finished three of those bouts by utilizing his wicked jiu-jitsu skills that have made him one of the most exciting fighters to watch as of late.
The No. 3-ranked welterweight was primed to challenge for the 170-pound throne following his win over Condit in August, but after the whole ordeal between champion Tyron Woodley and Stephen Thompson at UFC 205 he was forced to wait a bit longer. Now Maia has accepted a bout with Jorge Masvidal to keep him busy, where the winner is likely to challenge ‘The Chosen One’ for the welterweight title next after his majority decision win over ‘Wonderboy’ at UFC 209.
Had St-Pierre made the decision to return to welterweight, however, it may have made the Brazilian’s current situation all the more frustrating, landing him in a spot similar to that of No. 1-ranked middleweight Yoel Romero who will now have to wait for his respective title opportunity thanks to ‘GSP.’
Maia recently told MMA Junkie that he is very thankful that the Canadian star didn’t decide to come back to 170 pounds, making his situation just a bit more bearable:
“I’m glad they didn’t set up his fight in my weight category,” Maia said.
Now Maia will challenge Masvidal on a stacked UFC 211 card from the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas on May 13th. While he was holding out hope that he would instead receive a title shot the next time he stepped into an Octagon, Maia didn’t hesitate to accept the bout with the No. 6-ranked ‘Gamebred’:
“I really wanted to fight for the title, and that’s the fight I wanted to take for sure,” he said. “It was something that was on my shoulders – I was always waiting and nobody was giving me a clear perspective on what is happening. So when they finally said, ‘You need to take this fight,’ we finally solved this situation, and it was also relieving for me.”
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