I took a time to read through all the comments. I can't believe that there is no one on this forum that knows the era when Anderson ruled the world (only 10 years ago).
The answer to your question is simple. When Anderson was too dominant in his weight class and was disposing of contenders left and right, he was looking for the ultimate challenge to become mma god. He wanted GSP. Particularly in the period when he fought Maia, he demanded constantly to fight GSP at catch weight 178 pounds. GSP would never oblige and Dana would never force GSP to make that fight happen. Anderson was so pissed of that the fight was not happening, he did the Maia and Cote fights(stalling, winning with minimal effort) which infuriated the fans and Dana. The fans were booing those two fights and Dana was very pissed.
Not only that, but Anderson was so arrogant at that period, that he used to publicly grease. He used the vaseline from his face to grease his chest at the opening of round1, there are gifs of that around the net. He was the most dominant champion up to that point and he was forcing Dana to make the super fight with George. George who was super scared to lose again, never agreed to fight Anderson. Anderson greased and stalled these 2 fights to put some weight on Dana, but it was all in vein. The most dominant champion in the ufc history couldn't get his superfight and continued to dominate the next fights as usual. He found challenge at LHW, where he had extraordinary performance, having had perfect fight with the LHW champion.
Anderson was stalling the whole fight, but when he engaged, he did this:
He was more than capable of attack. He broke Maia's face with one precise flying knee.
