While a lot of fighters and MMA personalities are jumping on the Chris Weidman bandwagon leading up to his fight with UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva next weekend, don’t count on Demian Maia to be one of them.
The Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace, who’s been lucky enough to face both men inside the Octagon and live to tell the tale, believes that “The Spider” has the edge in next weekend’s UFC 162 headlining title bout.
“He is a great fighter, he is a guy who has no big gaps in his game. But Anderson is Anderson so its tough you know? It’s a tough fight for Chris,” Maia said in a recent interview with Fighters Only magazine.
“If he can take Anderson down I would say he has a chance but still, Anderson has a good guard. So I don’t know. If I had to bet $100? I would bet it on Anderson.”
That’s a pretty bold statement by the grappling standout, considering that he was prompted to move down to the welterweight division following his unanimous decision loss to Weidman at UFC on Fox 2 last year.
But as the only person to have taken on both Silva and Weidman, Maia has a unique insight into each fighter’s style, so he should have a pretty good gauge on how they will match up.
Maia infamously fell short during his sole title challenge at UFC 112 in 2010, dropping a lopsided unanimous decision to the middleweight king. Silva drew a lot of ire from fans and UFC officials for this fight because of his constant mocking and refusal to finish Maia.
However, I doubt we’ll see this type of performance from “The Spider” next weekend.
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