UFC 102 Preview: Maia vs. Marquardt

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This is it — the fight I’m most looking forward to on this show.

On the surface, it’s a fight between two guys who aren’t incredibly popular. Nate Marquardt is a former title contender to Anderson Silva’s belt, but he’s never really connected with the fans. He’s working his way back to a title shot and believes he’s a different fighter than he was during his previous shot at Silva.

Demian Maia is a world-class grappler, a submission artist who makes the jiu-jitsu aspect of mixed martial arts look like poetry in motion. He might also be the best BJJ player currently doing mixed martial arts. Trying to grapple with Maia is akin to waving a white flag.

The fight has immediate middleweight title implications. The winner of this fight will likely get the next title shot at Anderson Silva (after Dan Henderson, of course), and thus it becomes far more important than just about any fight on the card.

Marquardt is a powerful fighter and a good striker with great takedown defense. Maia likely won’t be scoring any standard takedowns, so his best option for getting into a good position will be to allow Marquardt to get him to the ground. Once it’s on the ground, Maia is incredibly dangerous and Marquardt, despite his power, would be in real trouble. Because of that, Marquardt will want to keep the fight standing for the entire 15 minutes, and I’m not sure he can do that.

In my mind, Demian Maia might be the one guy in the middleweight division who can beat Anderson Silva right now, so it should be pretty obvious who I’m picking to win this fight. We’ll see more Maia jiu-jitsu wizardry on the way to a submission victory, likely via triangle choke.

PREDICTION: Demian Maia by submission