UFCThe Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is a U.S.-based mixed martial arts organization, recognized as the largest MMA promotion in the world. The UFC is headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada and is owned and operated by Zuffa, LLC. This promotion is responsible for solidifying the sport's postion in the history-books.
UFC is currently undergoing a remarkable surge in popularity, along with greater mainstream media coverage. UFC programming can now be seen on FOX, FX, and FUEL TV in the United States, as well as in 35 other countries worldwide.
I think it's a little early for Maia considering he's fought for under 5 minutes in the UFC welterweight division overall. If his conditioning looks good though, I can see him beating Fitch. Fitch doesn't have outstanding take down defense and Maia has pretty underrated take downs. He also seems to be really strong at this weight class so Fitch may have his work cut out for him if Maia puts him on his back. Penn nearly caught Fitch, and Maia is on Penn's level of BJJ (Maia has better BJJ in my opinion), except he's bigger and stronger than Penn so that could help him sink in something against Fitch. I know I'm using MMA math there, but the guy with the best BJJ that Fitch has fought was a 155er with weak conditioning and is known for choking at 170, and that guy came close to catching him in a choke and was doing very well up until the later rounds where he is well known for slowing down a lot at this weight class, and he still managed to take Fitch to a draw.
We'll see though, I'm picking Maia at the moment. It should be a good fight.
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Top 10 Favorite Fighters
1. Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell
2. Diego Sanchez
3. Jon "Bones" Jones
4. Glover Teixeira
5. Nate Diaz
6. Nick Diaz
7. Michael Bisping
8. John Dodson
9. Demian Maia
10. Wanderlei Silva
Maia's BJJ is considerabley higher than BJ's imo, but Erick Silva had that rear naked on 100% Vs Fitch and he didn't tap, eventually getting out of it. The big question is; if Demain Maia can sink in a sub, can he tap Fitch? Most exciting pairing since someone mentioned Cody McKenzie/Brian Ebersole.
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A. Overeem : G. Nelson : R. Khabilov : T. Means : C. Mills
Team CB
Che Mills
Gunnar Nelson
Tim Means
Rustam Khabilov
Conor McGregor
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Maia's bjj is on such an insanely high level. I am really interested in this fight should it hit the ground as Fitch has very very good sub defense and smothering control.
Striking, neither of these guys have anything to phone home about. Not sure who I would give the edge to.
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Always Supporting
Urijah Faber - Dustin Poirier - Demian Maia - Frankie Edgar - Vitor Belfort - Georges St. Pierre - Lyoto Machida - Miesha Tate
Maia's BJJ is considerabley higher than BJ's imo, but Erick Silva had that rear naked on 100% Vs Fitch and he didn't tap, eventually getting out of it. The big question is; if Demain Maia can sink in a sub, can he tap Fitch? Most exciting pairing since someone mentioned Cody McKenzie/Brian Ebersole.
No he didn't. He didn't have his left hand completely behind Fitch's head and therefore couldn't lock the choke up with his own head. That's why Fitch could grab Silva's hand and pull it away and release the pressure of the choke.
I've seen a lot of MMA fighters not doing the full choke, but only putting their lock up up hand on top of their opponent's head instead of behind it and often their opponents can escape, because they just need to pull that hand away. This is actually absolute basic stuff. If you do it correctly, you almost only need to inhale, so your expanding lungs would push your arm and hence your opponent's head forward to initiate the actual choke. You don't even need to squeeze your arms that much then.
Going to be interested to see what Fitch does in this fight. Have heard him say in an interview awhile ago they he purposely leaves his head or arm in dangerous places in the first round hoping his opponent expands too much energy early.
Maia can obviously win if he pulls off something quick on the ground or Fitch just sits in his guard.
But Fitch last fight proved he is still an elite WW.
Fitch is a blackbelt in some self defense art and a knowledgeable and strong grappler. He may be one of the harder guys to sub in the UFC. If anyone can it is Maia, but Maia has rolled with far less grapplers and couldn't sub them. Fitch should try to keep it standing anyway. Or the Fitch wall grind. I'm afraid it turns into a bad kickboxing match that Fitch will probably win.
Jon Fitch on Nick Diaz & GSP and matchup with Demian Maia.
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