Demian Maia vs Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson for the #1 contender spot at WW?

[touchedbyjab]

Maia will not be able to to take Thompson to the ground. He will get KO'd swiftly and effectively.

Lawler vs Thompson would be a barn burner.

 

[CR0W]

Maia will not be able to to take Thompson to the ground. He will get KO'd swiftly and effectively.

Lawler vs Thompson would be a barn burner.

I think you need to watch more of Maia, if we're talking about 2009 Maia I'd agree but not nowadays.

I was preaching in another thread about Thompson's imrpoved TDD, training with Weidman etc and how much better he's developed than Michael Page (what another user was arguing was that it's not clear whether Thompson is beter than Page)

Anyway, wrestling takedowns are very much different than Judo style takedowns, bodylocks and trips. I've been ragdolled by a high level Judo practitioner and it's not even comporable how different it is to defend.

Maia has taken down the best grapplers at Middlweight and Welterweight.

Don't get me wrong, there's obviously still a chance Thompson catches him clean coming in and KO's him but to say definitively "Maia will not be able to take Thompson to the ground" is silly.

http://www.mixedmartialarts.com/news/Analyzing-the-grappling-game-of-Demian-Maia-439174 A very good read on Maia's grappling.

 

[HaulParris]

Maia

 

[Hulk Brogan]

i think that this gif is the most concerning to wonderboy. hendricks relies mostly on double leg takedowns, taking the guy's legs out from underneath him and dropping him, which are difficult against a guy with a wide karate stance like wonderboy.

maia, however, relies mostly on single leg take downs by grabbing the lead leg and dragging you down. wonderboy's karate stance leaves his front leg out there to be grabbed onto. it's something he will have to watch out for.

 

[CR0W]

i think that this gif is the most concerning to wonderboy. hendricks relies mostly on double leg takedowns, taking the guy's legs out from underneath him and dropping him, which are difficult against a guy with a wide karate stance like wonderboy.

maia, however, relies mostly on single leg take downs by grabbing the lead leg and dragging you down. wonderboy's karate stance leaves his front leg out there to be grabbed onto. it's something he will have to watch out for.

Agree with you there buddy. That wide, side on karate stance offers the leg to Maia.

Maia is fantastic at securing single leg takedowns and trips away from the cage as well as against it. Something that Hendricks didn't really offer. Like you said, his strategy was to press against the cage, bury his head between your legs and trip dump the double leg.

 

[SassyPants]

Condit can get back in line, may be fight Woodley and if he wins he gets close to the title again, Woodley has been sitting on his ass for about a year wating for the title shot with a decision over Gastelum. Im fine with wonderboy getting the shot, but maia should beat Brown and wait for the winner of that fight, but it also depends on timing, robbie just fought a month ago, if they fight say in the next 4 months, and the outcome allows the champ to fight one more time this year, maia should wait for the winner,but if the champ has like 6 months suspension or something liek that, fuck it, then I can see maia fighting woodley or condit for n° contender.

with the way things are, being so contender top heavy, someone, actually multiple people, are going to get screwed out of their shot.

 

[GGNORE]

As much as I'd like to see Wonderboy get a title shot...I think Mai takes him down and subs him out. Classic match up though, lezz do it fur dee fanz.

 

[Which Doctor]

If Hendricks couldn't get Wonderboy down, Maia isn't doing it. Maia would end up blowing out a blocked nose once again.

I think it could go either way, but the bad way for Maia involves broken noses and spinning shit to the gut to set it up.

Dem single-legs doe...

 

[Jermei]

No way, Gunnar Nelson / Thompson is the better fight.

 

[10mm]

Maia is a bad matchup for anyone.

 

[Which Doctor]

Ha ha why?

A. Because Mac Danzig (the entity) makes me laugh.
B. Because Mac Danzig has fought at WW before.
C. Because Mac Danzig has a solid shot to squeeze out one last run under USADA (Maybe not @ WW, but he could always just drop down to 55, sub Conor, and turn Werdum Time into Danzig Time. Just think of all the things Kenny Florian, sorry, Joe Hogan would say.)

 

[GENERAL AZUL]

No. There is no need to burn a top contender. Both should fight for the title.

 

[Kelman]

I endorse this idea.

And I'd take Maia by 2nd or 3rd round submission after mauling Wonderboy on the ground a la the Maia-Magny fight.

 

[FlyingKimurabar]

Think it would look a lot like Anderson/Maia.

Anderson is way bigger than Wonderboy, and probably has better TDD. I can't see Wonderboy stopping half of Chaels takedowns, but who knows. Thing with Maia is, he's going to just charge after Thompson and try to drag him to the ground. He's not even going to try and strike much like Hendricks.

 

[FlyingKimurabar]

Think it would look a lot like Anderson/Maia.

Anderson is way bigger than Wonderboy, and probably has better TDD. I can't see Wonderboy stopping half of Chaels takedowns, but who knows. Thing with Maia is, he's going to just charge after Thompson and try to drag him to the ground. He's not even going to try and strike much like Hendricks.

 

[Just Creed]

They should just give both guys a shot, no point in letting Maia play spoiler.

 

[Metallicalabran]

why destroy Thompson winning streak ? just let him fight Lawler, this fight is not needed (maia vs thompson)

/thread

 

[LHWBelt]

I think woodley should be given his title shot like promised. Then there are a ton of contenders lined up:

Maia-Brown winner
Thompson
Condit
Maconald
Magny
Story

Obviously Thompson has the next best claim but all of these guys have a solid resume and some of them should fight each other in the meantime to establish the next contender after woodley. GSP would get an automatic shot if he came back too.

 

[BJJ_Rage]

I think woodley should be given his title shot like promised. Then there are a ton of contenders lined up:

Maia-Brown winner
Thompson
Condit
Maconald
Magny
Story

Obviously Thompson has the next best claim but all of these guys have a solid resume and some of them should fight each other in the meantime to establish the next contender after woodley. GSP would get an automatic shot if he came back too.

Why should Woodley get the shot? For envisioning gastelum and not fighting Hendricks?

 

[fortheo]

Poll needs the option of "this fight shouldn't happen right now"