(If MacDonald’s fighting career doesn’t pan out, he can always get a job as a male model. / Photo via Getty.)

The UFC announced that welterweights Rory MacDonald and Demian Maia would face off at UFC 170 this February. They made the announcement when the MMA world was abuzz with talk about the stellar fight card taking place. You know, the one that hosted one of the most exciting main events ever? So the news didn’t really stick.

Maia is coming off a disappointing loss to Jake Shields at UFC Fight Night 29 back in October. He looked his age, 36, during the fight.

MacDonald recently had his hype train derailed by a resurgent Robbie Lawler at UFC 167, snapping a five-fight winning streak and presumably a fight with Georges St.Pierre.

MacDonald-Maia is good booking. The well-rounded MacDonald is an atrocious match-up for Maia—who has average striking and deficient takedowns. It’s clear that the UFC wants to get their 24-year-old, Canadian prospect back in “the mix” as soon as possible, and the best way to do that is give him a name opponent that he has a high chance of beating. They want to make him their next GSP sooner rather than later.

(Kim vs. Silva: The moment of impact, and the aftermath. / Photos via Getty)

I wouldn’t call yesterday’s UFC Fight Night event a great card, necessarily — the headlining bout was predictably slow, and the main card broadcast dragged in the middle thanks to the light-heavyweights. Still, there were enough violent, surprising, and awful moments at UFC Fight Night 29 to make it worth discussing. So let’s talk about the interesting stuff first, and work our way down to the crap.

Rousimar Palhares may look a little different at welterweight*, but his gameplan hasn’t changed one iota. From the opening bell, Palhares aggressively dove for the legs of Mike Pierce, in an attempt to sink one of his infamous leg-locks. It worked…maybe a little too well. In just 31 seconds, an agonized Mike Pierce was tapping from a heel-hook. As is custom in MMA, the winning fighter is supposed to release his grip and jump up on the cage to do some flexing. But not Rousimar. As he’s done so many times before, Palhares continued to hold the submission for a moment after the referee intervened — which must have seemed like an eternity to poor Mike Pierce.

Rousimar’s heel-hook was the only submission on the card, and would be worthy of a $50,000 Submission of the Night bonus even if there were other subs to compete with. Instead, the UFC decided to withhold the SOTN bonus due to Palhares’s “unsportsmanlike conduct,” and UFC President Dana White claimed that Palhares would receive an additional punishment for his actions. Palhares previously received a 90-day slap on the wrist** for holding a heel-hook against Tomasz Drwal at UFC 111. Maybe the next punishment will be severe enough for him to actually pay attention.

* By the way, when Palhares showed up in the cage, he almost looked like the old Palhares again. Ah, the miracle of rehydration.

** Allegedly.

(“Alright homey, let’s give these fans what they paid for — 25 minutes of evenly-matched grappling stalemates.” / Photo via Getty)

Let’s be honest, Demian Maia vs. Jake Shields may turn out to be the most piss-break worthy UFC main event since Mousasi vs. Latifi. Luckily, the supporting card for tonight’s UFC Fight Night 29 card is loaded with the kind of action-packed Brazil vs. The World matchups that the local fans go nuts for, including Thiago Silva’s absolute-must-win fight against Matt Hamill, and the freaky welterweight debut of Rousimar Palhares (who was not looking too good at the weigh-ins, by the way). Plus: Breast cancer awareness advocate Erick Silva faces off against Dong Hyun Kim, Fabio Maldonado slugs it out with Joey Beltran, and Brazilian Arianny enters our lives once again.

Handling the play-by-play for the FOX Sports 1 main card is Seth Falvo, who will be stacking live results and his own deep thoughts after the jump beginning at 7 p.m. ET. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest, and please toss your own thoughts into the comments section.

You know how broken-down, piece-of-shit houses are often advertised as “handyman’s specials“? Well, tomorrow’s UFC Fight Night 29 event in Barueri is a “grappler’s wet dream,” headlined by two welterweights known for bringing it to the mat and keeping it there for AS LONG AS IT TAKES!!! (Just trying to stay positive here, guys.) Non-Baruerians can watch the action on FOX Sports 1, and we’ll be livebogging the main card starting at 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT.

To keep you current on all the important themes surrounding “Maia vs. Shields,” it’s time for CagePotato founding editor Ben Goldstein and staff writer Seth Falvo to engage in some spirited debate. So how will the main event play out? What’s the best way to make money off the fights? Which fighter on the card is talented enough to be a future Bellator tournament semi-finalist? And which funny GIF will show up at the end of this post? Read on, and please toss your own opinions in the comments section.

Will Demian Maia‘s main event fight against Jake Shields go any differently than his last win against Jon Fitch? And are you already sold on Maia as a future welterweight title contender?

BG: Not all boring grapplers are the same. There can be subtle differences between boring grapplers. Jon Fitch is a guy whose single-minded focus is to take you down and lay on you until the fight ends. Jake Shields will take you down and try to submit you first, and if that’s not working out, then he’ll lay on you until the fight ends.

Here’s another difference — Fitch seems to lose a couple belt-ranks when his opponent manages to scramble onto his back. (Maia and BJ Penn were both able to hang out in back control for long stretches against Fitch, who defended himself well against rear-naked chokes, but was otherwise stuck in position.) Shields tends to be a little more active on the mat than Fitch both offensively and defensively, and unlike Fitch, Jake Shields has never been submitted in his entire career.

I see two possible outcomes here: 1) Maia and Shields recognize each other’s grappling abilities, and proceed to put on the sloppiest, stupidest kickboxing match in recent UFC history. 2) Shields tries to play jiu-jitsu with Maia, and it doesn’t work out too well for him. Either way, I’ve got the Brazilian by decision. Now would that firmly establish Maia as a title threat? Maybe not. Keep in mind that all of Maia’s opponents during his UFC welterweight run have been wrestlers. Give him the winner of UFC 167’s Robbie Lawler vs. Rory MacDonald bout after this one, and we’ll see how he handles himself in the deep end of the pool, against guys with the power to turn him upside-down.

SF: Glad to see I’m not the only person around here who has drank more than enough of the Demian Maia Kool-Aid; I’m already sold on him as a legitimate contender. But are we seriously writing off Jake Shields this easily?

I’m not about to write that Jake Shields has great striking or anything, but for a one-dimensional grappler, his Muay Thai is better than it has any business being. Yeah, I know — that’s like writing that The Wrestling Boot Band weren’t that terrible or that Pepsi Jazz was sort-of drinkable — but I’m not ready to say the same thing about Maia. Point being, if this fight stays on the feet, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to see Jake Shields walk away victorious. And, who knows, Jake may even violate a CagePotato Ban and win by bringing back the old Jake Shields tomorrow night. Anything can happen in a cage fight, bro.

Looking at the gambling odds for this event, what’s the single smartest wager you could make?

(Video via the UFC’s Youtube page)

Welterweights Jake Shields and Demian Maia were in Sao Paulo Brazil recently for a photo shoot to promote their October 9th Ultimate Fight Night 29 main event bout when things got a little weird. Interviewer Paula Sack turned her mic over to both Maia and Shields to interview one another on a freaking roof top or something.

Neither fighter seemed too enthused about the idea and appeared to try to get through the awkward question and answer sessions as quickly as possible. In sly tactical maneuvers that ultimately failed, however, both Shields and Maia asked one another what strategies they planned to use in the fight.

Side stepping and nervous laughter all around ensued. “Haha, I’m just kidding. I mean, unless you wanna tell me. That would be cool, too.” Something like that.

Either having two soft-spoken, humble fighters who are about to do battle interview one another is the a great idea or a horrible one. Depending, of course, on if you enjoy watching good or bad interviews.

Did you pick up on any body language signs of stength or weakness while watching the video, nation? Let us know. We were really only paying attention to the parts with Paula Sack in them.

- Elias Cepeda

(Photo by Donald Miralle/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)

Well, this is kinda cool. In today’s MMA career symmetry news, MMA Fighting speaks with UFC welterweight contender Demian Maia about returning to the arena where he first made a name for himself in MMA.

“Maia became famous in the MMA world on Oct. 7, 2006, when he dominated three opponents in one night to win the Super Challenge middleweight tournament. The event took place at Jose Correa Gymnasium, the same arena that will host UFN 29,” where Maia will fight Jake Shields, they report.

The Super Challenge middleweight tournament had names like Gustavo Machado, Fabio Nascimento, Alexandre Ferreira, Katel Kubis and Leonardo Nascimento involved. In the end, the underdog prevailed for the title.

“I thought ‘okay, let’s see what happens,’” said Maia. “Paulo Vasconcelos was the promoter and he invited me to fight. I said ‘I don’t know, give me a submission or jiu-jitsu fight, but he couldn’t find an opponent to fight me. Josuel Distak, who was one of my coaches at that time, said I’d win the tournament, so I basically was thrown in there by them.”

(“I guess, just don’t play truth or dare with Rakishi is the main point of my story, Joe.” Photo via MMAPro.)

It appears as if Josh Koscheck has recovered rather quickly from the undisclosed injury that forced him to pull out of his fight with Demian Maia scheduled for UFC 163. In fact, the former welterweight title challenger and “five star guy” according to Ronnie from the Jersey Shore (unconfirmed) has already been booked to face former Strikeforce welterweight title challenger Tyron Woodley at UFC 167.

It’s probably the best news old Fluffin Top has heard in the better part of a year. After dropping back-to-back fights for the first time in his MMA career, many assumed that Koscheck’s pairing with the win-streaking Maia was the UFC’s way of putting the TUF 1 alum in a do-or-die situation. While that could still be the case for his fight with Woodley, at least Koscheck has been given a far more winnable matchup (or so it would seem). Are we insinuating that Koscheck faked an injury to duck Maia and get an easier opponent? Yes, that’s exactly what we’re saying.

Woodley has also seen some mixed results since transitioning the UFC back in February. After KO’ing Jay Hieron in his promotional debut at UFC 156, “The Chosen One” (whose nickname doesn’t hold a candle to “The Nsane 1“) was stifled by the ultimate stifler, Jake Shields, at UFC 161. It was a decision that some saw as controversial and most saw as “Oh, I was grabbing a ten dollar hoagie during that one.”

Who you like, Taters?

-J. Jones

(“We needed somebody to emulate Jake’s style during this training camp, Luckily, the Purple Prancer was available.” / Props: @DemianMaia)

Demian Maia was supposed to compete earlier this month at UFC 163, but the injury curse had other plans, and his opponent Josh Koscheck was forced out on short notice. Luckily he’ll have another high-profile fight to make up for it. MMAFighting reports that Maia has verbally agreed to fight Jake Shields at UFC Fight Night 29, which goes down October 9th, possibly at the Gymnasium Multisport José Corrêa in Barueri, São Paulo. The event will be broadcast on FOX Sports 1.

Between his previous wins over Rick Story and Jon Fitch, and his bookings against Koscheck and Shields, Maia is becoming a villain to West Coast-based American wrestlers during his current run at welterweight — though he’ll certainly be treated like a hero in his return to Brazil. Shields is coming off a forgettable split-decision victory against Tyron Woodley at UFC 161 in June, which followed his no-contest against Ed Herman due to a failed drug test. It’s been a long time since Shields has had a truly impressive victory (you might have to go all the way back to April 2010), and the odds won’t be in his favor this fall.

A main event for the card hasn’t been announced yet, but the UFC’s October 9th lineup will also feature Erick Silva vs. Dong Hyun Kim and Jeremy Stephens vs. Rony Jason.

(Now that is one athletic, explosive white man. Props: OfficialGSP via Reddit_MMA)

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(“And then I told him, ‘I’m a martial artist.’ Haha, I know, right?” | Photo via lebeauleblog)

As ridiculous as his peripheral presence in the UFC has been, I can’t remember any pro fighter calling shenanigans on the whole “Steven Seagal has helped coach Anderson Silva” narrative that has been perpetrated on the MMA public over the past few years. That is, until today.

Former Silva foe Demian Maia recently spoke to Yahoo! Esportes and had the guts to go on record and state the obvious — that the bloated fake martial artist and movie actor Steven Seagal has absolutely nothing to teach a real fighter like Silva, and everyone knows it. “That’s a lie, is marketing,” Maia said.

“He never taught anything to Anderson…it is a joke.”