Everyone forget Demian Maia's fighting??

I haven't seen a single thread on search function acknowledging Demian Maia's fight this saturday in Brazil. Nothing's been said about his match up with Russian newcomer.. uhhh whatever the guys name is... yakovlev? No offense to him

What gives? Is everyone writing him off as a contender @ 170? I remember while he was on his streak people were hyped about his weight cut but ever since that loss against Rory, NOTHING. His stock rose in my books after that fight.

Maia was beating Rory up pretty good and even mounted him in the 1st round. He kept it pretty competitive all throughout 3 rounds and really kept pushing forward even after getting stuffed and countered. He even let his hands go in a fight with someone as dangerous as Rory.

If anyone out there has any information on his opponent, feel free to chime in on your opinion on how they stack up.



Note: Both Maia and Yakovlev are both southpaws apparently. That always makes for an interesting battle on the feet but I'm sure Maia will look to seize the back at some point. I'm wondering if Maia will have trouble on his entry when trying to change levels.

 

His opponent is very good from what I've seen, but Maia should have this. Should.

 

Who?

 

fighting a guy I have never heard of

 

I've never cared about Maia and I won't start now.

 

Yakulev dominated and beat Paul Daley recently. Excpect Maia to either 30-27 or quickly sub him.

 

I hope Maia has fixed his cardio. He would have beat Rory, but he had worse cardio than Roy Nelson.

 

I only realised after watching the weigh in show last night...Damien should run thru this Russian guy but if theres anything we've learnt this last year it's anything can happen in mma

 

He better go vintage Maia and Chael this dude or he'll be fighting Paul Harris in a few months

 

You mean Rory MacDonald's stock rose after that fight, it was the return of the machine like Rory! Maia was supposed to be some ground game specialist but when he got Rory down he did very little and never came close to any threats of catching Rory and getting a submission. In the third round Rory outstruck him so bad and was hitting him at will, I almost thought it might be stopped. Had Rory chosen to unload on him he would have got the finish, but either he was showing Maia some respect or he was so machine-like in his actions that he didn't see how badly Maia was hurt and just continued to pick him apart one combination at a time.

So ya, I've written Maia off as a contender @170

 

because you're a dumb ass... no one cares about you

 

Yakovlev is legit, but I would've rather seen them put Rashid Magomedov up against Maia. It would've been an amazing grappling match for sure.

 

Rashid is at lightweight now right?

 

Ah, you're right. He's going to dominate Damm who's coming up from 145.

 

yeah is that the guy that just got tooled by that GSP wanna be?

 

yep

 

Demian is pretty much irrelevant now, unfortunately

 

Gassing against Rory and being out grappled by Shields (although Shields is an awesome grappler, Maia should not be out grappled by anyone) will make you lose some fans.

 

Maia will dominate

 

if maia were to fight daley, people would be excited.

instead he's fighting a guy who dominated daley, so of course it's not as good of a fight.