Maia should not get title shot after Hendricks

ThinkBig500 said:
He also has a win over Condit. Maia beating Shields would look great on his record.
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A very long time ago. For better or worse, MMA is a "what have you done lately?" sport. Shields was on a very nice run coming into the UFC. He unfortunately has not performed well in the Octagon. He has looked awful in pretty much all of his fights, even the wins.
 
rjmbrd said:
Since when is Jake Shields a gimmie fight?

If Maia's WW run to the title goes:

DHK > Story > Fitch > Shields

You have to be kidding me you don't see that as a title run in the current welterweight landscape.
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Agreed all the way. That's an incredible run and definitely should earn him the shot.
 
willthechill said:
Not saying he should get it. Saying you can't argue him deserving it. If he can knock out Rory, he will have wins over Koscheck and Rory in his last 3 by KO. Maia is more deserving if he wins over Shields. Probably nobody else at this point. Matt Brown could be if he beats Condit.

It wasn't his fault he fought Voelker. He was a late replacement for Tarec and Siyar.
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IMO, if Maia, Brown and Lawler all win there next fight...

Brown deserves the next title shot. (7 fight streak and beat 3rd ranked)
Maia is right behind him. (4 fight streak no ranked wins but all very tough guys)
And Lawler is behind that. (3 fight win streak, beat 5th ranked guy)
 
ConditFan said:
So let the Hendricks/ gsp winner sit out for 8 months while we get a true number contender? If Maia finishes shields, ill have no problem with him getting the shot.
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jn677 said:
If gsp wins, he likes to sit out that long anyway.
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ConditFan said:
Hasn't he fought like 3 times in the last year? Counting Hendricks next month.
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Jim Rome said:
Yes three times in 12 months after fighting no times in 18 months.
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This will be his third fight in 13 months, actually. But to jn677's point, GSP's last fight was in March: exactly eight months before when the Hendricks fight is scheduled. Going back to before his ACL injury, GSP went 4 months between the Kos and Shields defenses; 9 months between Hardy and Kos; and 8 months between Alves and Hardy.

It was a fair statement.
 
nyduccie said:
IMO, if Maia, Brown and Lawler all win there next fight...

Brown deserves the next title shot. (7 fight streak and beat 3rd ranked)
Maia is right behind him. (4 fight streak no ranked wins but all very tough guys)
And Lawler is behind that. (3 fight win streak, beat 5th ranked guy)
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I agree with this fully. If Brown beats Condit it will be the biggest win any of them have and should earn him a shot. I really don't think he will, though. I do expect Maia to beat Shields and get a title shot. Lawler needs one or two more wins to really cement himself, but if both Brown and Maia lose, who knows.

If Hendricks wins, I suspect GSP will get a rematch.
 
Maia vs GSP would be a very interesting matchup. Fitch was primarily a guy who wrestlefucked other people, and Maia made Fitch his bitch via wrestling and grappling.

He has been working on his striking, and I'd definitely favor GSP on his feet, but GSP has never been in with someone he couldn't take down and grind, and he's used that as his primary strategy. He might get out-wrestled by Maia, and if he'd take him down, he'd be in constant jeopardy even while on top.

Maia was one-dimensional when he faced Silva at 185. Then he struggled as he tried to be more of a striker and ignored his grappling. Now, at 170, his striking is good enough for him to engage, and he dominates the grappling against the smaller guys.

I don't have any problem with him getting a title shot. Can you make an argument that someone else MIGHT be more worthy? Sure, but that's not the same as declaring him unworthy. Since this is the UFC we're talking about, given Dana's penchant for throwing in guys who have done nothing but talked crap on Twitter, this would be one of the more worthy challengers, so why not?
 
I don't disagree with you, but if you do the winner between Rory and Robbie and Jake and Maia as the number one contender fight - then the champ would be sitting on the sidelines for a long time..
 
I don't think a win, even a finish, over Shields will get Maia a title shot unless there are no other options. I think right now the 2 I'm looking at are Matt Brown and Maia, if Brown loses, then I would give the shot to Maia because I can't really think of any other WW's who have an impressive win streak like these 2 have. Brown's a little suspect, he hasn't beaten a top 10 guy yet, he himself is probably ranked lower than Maia. Maia's a good fighter, only 4 losses, all to top guys in the division or the champ himself, so his resume alone would help out a great deal. I mean really compared to anyone other than people who have already fought GSP, he's the guy that Matt Brown better hope DOESNT win or he's going to need ANOTHER win.
 
I didn't even factor in Lawler-McDonald simply because if Rory wins, he won't challenge GSP and it's highly unlikely that GSP won't get an immediate rematch if he loses to Hendricks no matter if it's a 50-45 decision or a flash KO. Lawler beats Rory, well, he'll have to make sure that Maia and Brown lose because it might not be a big enough win to get him v. GSP unless he shows great TDD and submission defense against Rory. No one's going to take GSP v. Robbie Lawler seriously just because Robbie packs dynamite, GSP has fought those guys before that have weak grappling skills but heavy hands and he just rolls through them.

It's an exciting time for the 145, 155, and 170 divisions because there are a lot of arguments that could be made for 3-4 guys to get the next title shot.
 
Who else should? Rory is gonna stomp Lawler and Rory won't fight GSP. Condit remacht? Too soon. Diaz rematch? Meh. Maia looks extremely good at 170. Beating Rory, Fitch, DHK (yeah, not a clear victory) and Shields should earn him a shot at this moment considering there are no contenders left.
 
IMO If Maia and Rory win, they should fight each other for #1 contender, but since we know Rory won't fight GSP, it's a free pass to Maia
 
While I agree that he may not deserve it.... it's a fight I'd like to see.
 
arturo_caap said:
IMO If Maia and Rory win, they should fight each other for #1 contender, but since we know Rory won't fight GSP, it's a free pass to Maia
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There are 2 problems with that scenario, number 1 that would be GSP would be sitting out for potentially a year waiting. And secondly what happens if Rory wins?? He already said he would not fight GSP so now you have eliminated Maia as a contender.

The issue is GSP has beaten pretty much everyone, I think Condit/Rory should be set up next if they both win their next fight and if Maia beats Shields he gets the next shot.

Really unless Askren comes over soon there is no one really left for GSP at the moment.
 
SocraticMethod said:
I agree with this fully. If Brown beats Condit it will be the biggest win any of them have and should earn him a shot. I really don't think he will, though. I do expect Maia to beat Shields and get a title shot. Lawler needs one or two more wins to really cement himself, but if both Brown and Maia lose, who knows.

If Hendricks wins, I suspect GSP will get a rematch.
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What if Condit beats Brown (what I expect), would (! not: should) they give him a second shot before Maia (after a win pover Shields)?
 
Jim Rome said:
There's nothing unclear about my comment. I'll break it down even more for you.

The last 12 months (ending in November 2013) the champ has been very active. The prior 18 months he was not.

The End.

PS Still mad bro?
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So........... GSP fights.

Good point. Anymore gems for us or you too mad bro?
 
georgwilhelm said:
What if Condit beats Brown (what I expect), would (! not: should) they give him a second shot before Maia (after a win pover Shields)?
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I don't know. They might. But Condit did lose to Hendricks after the GSP win, so the Brown fight would only be two wins in a row after two losses in a row. I'm not sure where Kampmann was ranked but Brown is in the bottom of the top 10 with this being the fight to prove whether or not he belongs in the upper echelon. So I don't know if they would.

I think if Condit beats Brown (which I also expect) and Maia is impressive in victory over Shields, Maia will get the shot. If Condit destroy Brown and Maia wins a boring decision, maybe he does get another shot.
 
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