Silva vs. Maia lost its luster

Just 6 months ago before Demian Maia took on Nate Marquardt at UFC 102 I thought to myself, If Maia beats Marquardt I would love to see him face Anderson Silva. Maia had entered the UFC 6-0 and rolled through Ryan Jensen, Ed Herman, Jason Macdonald, Nate Quarry & Chael Sonnen on route to Marquardt. At 11-0 and having submitted all his opponents in the UFC, Maia to me looked like the one that could contend with Silva.   

Well that changed 21 seconds into the fight with Marquardt as Maia went for a kick and got caught with a big right hand that ended the fight. Marquardt exposed the stand up of Maia in less than a half a minute and made me rethink the Silva vs. Maia matchup. Maia came back with a much improved striking game when he faced Dan Miller earlier this month winning by Unanimous Decision. Problem there is Dan Miller is no Anderson Silva when it comes to striking/stand up.

When Silva and Maia face each other April 10^th at UFC 112 in Adu Dhabi it will be the classic grappler versus striker matchup. Silva is no ordinary striker though and grappler always has to strike to get in close enough for the takedown, unless you Thales Leites. Maia has the advantage on the ground for sure but Silva is no slouch on the ground though. Silva has the advantage standing and even though Maia looked better against Miller he’s still far off. To me the gap between Silva & Maia in striking is much greater than the gap between Maia & Silva in grappling. Unless Maia can close that gap over the next couple month, which seems unlikely Maia is going to be in trouble.

Tags: Anderson Silva, Chael Sonnen, Dan Miller, Demian Maia, Ed Herman, Grappler, Jason Macdonald, MMA, Nate Marquardt, Nate Quarry, Ryan Jensen, Striker, Thales Leites, UFC, UFC 102, UFC 112, Vitor Belfort

Category: MMA, UFC