And so, the speculation comes to an end. Following his beatdown of Jason Miller at the TUF 14 Finale, UFC middleweight contender Michael Bisping will make a quick seven-week turnaround and fight Demian Maia at UFC on FOX 2 (January 28th, Chicago). The UFC confirmed the pairing early this morning, in advance of a scheduled press conference this afternoon at the United Center officially announcing the fight card.
While Bisping is rolling on a four-fight win streak, Maia just got back to the win column in October with a unanimous decision over Jorge Santiago, which followed a decision loss to Mark Munoz. Maia is 3-1 overall since his disastrous title challenge against Anderson Silva at UFC 112. When he enters the cage next month, it will have been nearly three years since the former grappling phenom scored a submission in the Octagon — a triangle choke against none other than Chael Sonnen at UFC 95.
UFC on FOX 2 will be headlined by the #1 light-heavyweight contender’s match between Rashad Evans and Phil Davis, and co-headlined by the #1 middleweight contender’s match between Sonnen and Mark Munoz. A decisive win over Maia would likely put Bisping next in the pecking order at 185. Due to his current medical suspension, Bisping really isn’t supposed to start training again until Christmas day, but hey, business is business.
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commentsIf Mayhem can take Bisping down, I'm willing to bet Maia can as well - and Maia's got the skills to finish him there (or at least keep him there).
Not sure why people think Maia is anything like Miller.
Maia has fought way tougher competition than Bisping, has taken down and submitted the best MW wrestler, got screwed against another top MW wrestler in Munoz and got caught with a big shot(something Bisping does not have) against Marquardt when his stand up was far less evolved than it is now.
Not saying Maia has incredible stand up, but it has improved where Bisping remains strong in the technical department on his feet without much KO power at all.
It works out for Maia more times than Bisping on paper, Maia will be the betting favorite in this fight for sure.
"GSP blown acl will be out for 10 mos.," White tweeted. "Now Condit vs Diaz for the interim welterweight title on Feb 4th in Las Vegas!!"
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Bisping will get owned, plain and simple. Maia is way above his level in terms of technique strength and athleticism. He is finally fighting a proper world class dude and he will get shown up badly.
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Then he'll complain he didn't have time to prepare. The loss is ok with him though, he doesn't want to fight Silva anyway. Back to crushing cans Michael.
IMO, he deserves the fight versus Bisping.
Mia, while defeating fighters who have been able to climb up the ladder, has also lost to guys who aren't even in the UFC anymore(Nate M) That being said, Belcher, would be a great fight vs. Bisping. Two standup guys, both good cardio. Only difference is Belcher would chop Bispings little chicken ass legs until he couldn't stand.
I hope Belcher is ok. Good guy, deserves to be fighting top notch contenders.
I believe this is also why he is cool with fighting Maia, I know for a fact he would not want to fight Chael what do you think?
SnackDaddy
They are paying Bisping a lot of money to take these other fights. He made 425,000 to fight Miller, im sure he is contracted to make a lot against Maia. Otherwise i don't think he would have taken this fight with only a month to train (for Maia) and the fact that Maia really isn't on a streak. Bisping is smart for the money. But I know Bisping would be handled by either Munoz or Sonnen. Im sure he does too so why not fight these other kind of oponents for the same amount of money.
Wed, 12/07/11 - 07:02
Is it wrong that I’m hoping for another GSP/Diaz/Penn/Condit fuckery so that there’s a chance Sonnen will face Bisping? Let Munoz and Maia fight each other… If Bisping can completely side-step a direct question about Silva, let him face Chael.
I didn't see him side step, he clearly said the first round wasn't good enough to face the champ
Personally, I think Bisping should be getting that test against either Sonnen or Munoz, but Im not the matchmaker.
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