Demian Maia is a tough fighter to wrap your head around. One day, the onetime middleweight contender is choking out Chael Sonnen and handling a guy like Jorge Santiago the next he’s being dominated by Mark Munoz and Chris Weidman. The one thing the Brazilian jiu-jitsu standout, who is 9-4 in the Octagon has lacked in his career is consistency, which explains why he’s ready perhaps to make a change.
Maia, who admits he sometimes struggles to maintain his 198-pound walking around weight, told Tatame recently that he’s been thinking about dropping down a weight class to fight at 170 pounds.
“It has not been decided yet [for sure]. I’ve always said it was a possibility… I usually have to make much effort to keep 198lbs and I gotta eat a lot not to lose weight because it’s easy for me. I’m getting healed from my hand (hand surgery), which is almost good. I’m taking a week off because it’s been a while since I haven’t taken some time to rest. Now that I’m not training and eating what I want I weight 194lbs, more or less. When it’s close to the fight I cut weight and leave the last 11 to 13lbs to lose at the very end.”
Maia is recovering from hand surgery following a break he sustained his loss to Chris Weidman at last month, but is hoping to be back 10 100 percent by the summer so he can fight on the next planned card in Rio.
“I hope to be ready in June. We’re getting back to training now and I’ll fight in June if I have to,” he explains. “I’ll be ready.”
Who do you think he should face if he debuts at 170?
Mike Swick, Jon Fitch or Josh Koscheck, perhaps? Personally, I’d like to see him face Alan Belcher like he was scheduled to do before we write him off as a middleweight.