Genuinely sad for Maia

[blopdak]

Honestly I wouldn’t worry about it. It feels like he was after and won a morale victory in that he didn’t get finished and Usman wouldn’t follow him to the ground.

 

[Oj21]

It sucks that people think he's done. He still beats most guys. Respect for him though considering he, at 40 years old took the fight that everyone is refusing

 

[IDGETKTFO]

not that I was a huge Maia fan, but seeing a guy as nice as him basically just be a benchmark for “who did it better” between three boring ass fights.

Tyron, Colby, and Usman all using Maia as a “I beat him worse than you did” thing

Thats the story of a one trick pony. I am sure Holly and Nunes would be benchmarking Ronda if she stuck around longer.

 

[fastone]

Wow, do people even realize what it means to fight top, young fighters at 40 years old? He has nothing to be ashamed of and for you to feel bad about. Imagine 30 year old Maia fighting Usman.

 

[fortheo]

not that I was a huge Maia fan, but seeing a guy as nice as him basically just be a benchmark for “who did it better” between three boring ass fights.

Tyron, Colby, and Usman all using Maia as a “I beat him worse than you did” thing

The good thing is that Maia just got his 4 worst stylistic match-ups in the division out of the way. He probably only fights one or two more times, but it's pretty much guaranteed he'll have a better stylistic match-up.

 

[fortheo]

That's a weird kind of compliment in itself at least.

The elite are only elite because they beat Maia. There's nothing wrong with being that guy. He's been a top ten guy for over a decade. Nothing but respect for him.

 

[RampageFaction]

You are a fucking idiot, Sir.

And I mean that in the most offensive way possible.

Take a look at his evolution over the past 10 years. His single leg is sick and damn effective. It just isn't effective against the best wrestlers in the world. And considering that, when you listen to the expert's camps, they all say they train to stop his single leg. And even then he has a few other takedowns - remember Chael?

The guy is a world BJJ champion who *DID* implement a wrestling game. He just didn't get started on it at 10 years old. But don't think, even for a minute he isn't out there every fucking day drilling his wrestling.

FFS - GDI GTFO of Maia threads and never come back.

That's pretty harsh. I happen to agree that Maia's wrestling is subpar. You don't get points for "how far you've come." I'm no wrestling expert so I defer to the pros who call his wrestling "basic" at best. Same goes for his striking. It's improved a good deal over his career but it's still basic. In my opinion RDA is the model. He started as a "BJJ guy," but worked hard on his striking and wrestling. His improvements in those areas put Maia's to shame.

 

[WeedLordBonerHitler]

Maia may be a brilliant grappler, but unfortunately he in the UFC. Watching Maia drop to the ground against Snoozeman like a submissive dog was painful and insulting to the audience.

 

[fortheo]

It's pretty sad that given his complete dependence on a ground attack that he didn't substantially up his wrestling game so he could implement it.

This is not a rare thing among BJJ practitioners. They just won't embrace the wrestling grind.

This can't be serious. Maia has the best wrestling out of any BJJ guy in the history of MMA.














He's 40 years old and just faced the three best wrestlers in the division, and two of them on short notice. Just because he failed under those circumstances, doesn't mean we should forget what he's done.

 

[Stoic1]

That's pretty harsh. I happen to agree that Maia's wrestling is subpar. You don't get points for "how far you've come." I'm no wrestling expert so I defer to the pros who call his wrestling "basic" at best. Same goes for his striking. It's improved a good deal over his career but it's still basic. In my opinion RDA is the model. He started as a "BJJ guy," but worked hard on his striking and wrestling. His improvements in those areas put Maia's to shame.

Sub-par against who, exactly?

Because he is still taking down elite level guys.

 

[Jack Reacheround]

It’s his own fault for not really improving his stand up. It is fairly obvious he never worked on any stand up after his first couple of fights in the UFC. He looks exactly like he did 10 years ago.

But he was still good enough to beat up Colby Covington in the stand up, lol. At least until he gassed.

 

[Toxxus]

You are a fucking idiot, Sir.

And I mean that in the most offensive way possible.

Take a look at his evolution over the past 10 years. His single leg is sick and damn effective. It just isn't effective against the best wrestlers in the world. And considering that, when you listen to the expert's camps, they all say they train to stop his single leg. And even then he has a few other takedowns - remember Chael?

The guy is a world BJJ champion who *DID* implement a wrestling game. He just didn't get started on it at 10 years old. But don't think, even for a minute he isn't out there every fucking day drilling his wrestling.

FFS - GDI GTFO of Maia threads and never come back.

So his wrestling is really good - just not against the caliber of wrestlers he has to compete against.

I say the bar of wrestling he needs to hit is that level which will allow him to use his amazing BJJ game. If he's lost three in a row due to his inability to get and maintain take downs then I posit that his wrestling is not as good as it needs to be. How many times does he have to be defeated by a good TDD game before you recognize that his wrestling isn't good enough?

Maybe he would benefit from more variety in his takedown game if opponents are largely neutralizing him by drilling against single-leg take downs.

 

[MMAandBOXINGfan]

Its his own fault man hes had more than enough time to improve and he hasnt. I like maia and yea i kind feel bad for him as well but he only has himself to blame.

 

[Agent Mulder's Hair]

I'd like to see Maia vs Nick Diaz

 

[Phisher]

Funny how this guy consistently has been involved in some of the worst fights in UFC history but only his opponents get blamed.

 

[Big McLargeHuge]

What erks me is people saying he should have worked on his striking more, he obviously worked on it a lot through his mma career and got significantly better but some people think if you hit pads for 30 minutes a day you should be a knock out artist after 2 years

 

[BJJ_Rage]

That's pretty harsh. I happen to agree that Maia's wrestling is subpar. You don't get points for "how far you've come." I'm no wrestling expert so I defer to the pros who call his wrestling "basic" at best. Same goes for his striking. It's improved a good deal over his career but it's still basic. In my opinion RDA is the model. He started as a "BJJ guy," but worked hard on his striking and wrestling. His improvements in those areas put Maia's to shame.

its quite clear you are no wrestling expert....

He took down a whole bunch of wrestler, chael shields fitch story laflare dhk munhoz just to name a few, you dont take those guys down if you are not a good wrestler...

who was the last guy to take guy twood colby and usman?

hes got the sickest single leg in the division, thats why twood colby and usman were trying as hard as they could to not let demian grab a leg..

 

[HaikenEdge]

Maia's entire game is in service to his BJJ; his striking is serviceable enough for him to use it to get into positions where he can grapple his opponents, just like his wrestling is serviceable enough for him to get guys down to the ground so he can grapple them.

He didn't start out in striking or wrestling, and he doesn't have the athleticism a lot of other fighters have, so there was always going to a ceiling on how much he could improve his wrestling or striking.

Yes, he's not a top tier wrestler or striker, but he didn't need to be for most of his career, because he got them both to a level where they were good enough for him to get his opponents to the ground so he could submit them. Most men start declining physically around 35, and he was still beating some really good guys last year at the age of 39.

 

[Christhammer]

I still don't know what he was thinking vs Woodley... 40 failed takedown attempts, leg kicks open all day.

 

[Oeshon]

dont forget Anderson. He was the original 'worst fight with Maia' contender.