Round 1 (Source: Sherdog)
Maia lands a left, right combination and shoots a single . . . It sets up the rear-naked choke beautifully, as Quarry taps quickly once the hold is sunk. Impressive win from Demian Maia. The official time is 2:13 of the first.

Damn, I love this sport . . . I’m really waiting to read all the “experts” or nascent MMA pundits explain how Randy was unable to defeat Brock “WWE” Lesnar. Well, for the record, he’s the 4th MMA competitor to win the title with less than 10 fights under his belt. As the record shows, Randy is one of the four.

While many (not all) are predicting Quarry via TKO, I think its safe to say that they’re ignoring Maia’s striking ability altogether. Perfect example: Rashad Evans only chance for victory against former LHW champ Chuck Liddell was to utilize his wrestling. Why? Because that the official accepted talking point for Rashad Evans, totally ignoring the WILD-CRAZY possibility that he MIGHT, attempt to clinch Chuck, pull guard and submit with a kimura or bait him and for a fight ending KO. But the chances of that happening is like ______ I think you get the point there. I’m sure the new Evans-talking point is that he’s a great or powerful striker, which I don’t buy.

Is there evidence that Maia’s striking is not good? I don’t know, I haven’t seen it in his recent fights and the one pre-UFC fight I saw online. So just because his boxing, kick-boxing, muay thai is not highly lauded by Rogan, Goldberg or the nascent MMA cognoscenti does not mean that it does not exist. So with that said, I think it is safe to say that his striking just may be good enough to pull guard and attempt to finish the fight via submission without sustaining any risk of damage. I’m not saying that Maia can or will KO Quarry. But what if Quarry proves to be durable like Antonio Margarito??

Maybe this is all nonsensical basura based purely on speculative “what if” scenarios, but I’m just saying. A TKO prediction for Quarry, totally ignores Maia’s unknown abilities, besides who knows what this guy has been recently learning or practicing in the gym, maybe a well placed fight ending KO strike of his own.

BTW, Chuck has been hiding his kickboxing and great wrestling abilities. Babalu got caught with a head kick. Tito and Randy realized I can’t take this guy down at all!!

Its not that I don’t agree with the prediction, but I don’t think there’s enough evidence to support a TKO/KO victory for Quarry because there’s a lot that we don’t know about Maia.

Why compare Lutter’s matches to Maia? Lutter is a black belt in jui-jitsu who fought the UFC top middle weights. I’m assuming Maia’s take-down ability has to be somewhat good considering his record and world-class jui-jitsu status. Then again that may be way off base, but I see similarities.

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Of course I prefer on the ground, but I really don’t care. It’s a fight, I don’t have like a fight plan to go and just put him on the ground. I really, really don’t care. I go there and will start to fight and when I feel it’s good to go to the ground, then I go. But now I’m much more confident in my standup game, so I’m not going to be thinking, “I need to put this guy down, I need to put this guy down.” I just go, fight and see what’s going to happen. If it goes to the ground, even better. – Demian Maia (Source: MMAMANIA.COM)
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You’re correct. Demian Maia has not lost in nine MMA bouts and therefore has also never been knocked out. We all know that. However, he really has never fought anyone with the power and technical striking ability of Quarry. And trust me, Maia is NOT a striker and he isn’t “hiding” it because the opportunity only comes to submit his opponents. With your logic, I guess that means that Chuck Liddell might be a Jiu Jitsu wizard, but just chooses to knock his opponents out because the “opportunity presents itself often”. Maia has shown improved striking in his past few fights and may have enough to get by, but all in all he is pretty lost when it comes to the striking game.

If Maia wins this fight, it’ll be by submission. It’ll be interesting to see how much his takedown skills have improved and how strong Quarry’s takedown defense is. Bottom line, if it goes to the ground, Maia wins.

You’re also correct, Quarry got knocked out by Rich Franklin. Franklin happens to be one of the top middleweights in the sport and is a powerful striker. But I just don’t see how this fits into your argument. He got knocked out by Franklin indeed but Maia doesn’t have, as Josh would say, “a snowball’s chance in hell” of knocking out Quarry. He lacks the striking aptitude to do so. Could it happen? Yes, it could. But the chances of it happening are just as likely as Tim Sylvia submitting Fedor Emelianenko with a triangle choke.

And yes, Maia has a martial arts background and is a Jiu Jitsu world champion. We also know this. If he uses what little striking skill he has to setup a takedown, that doesn’t mean he’s a strong striker. It just means he knows another way to setup a good takedown. Furthermore, what does Travis Lutter have to do with Demian Maia? Maia is not Lutter AND is not fighting Franklin and Silva, so you can’t compare Lutter’s ability to takedown Franklin and Silva to Maia’s ability to potentially take down Quarry.

When you predict a fight, you take what you know about the fighters and what you’ve seen out of them in the past and apply it to the situation. You can’t predict fights based entirely on a speculatory “what if”.If you’re going to disagree with a prediction, that’s all fine and good. But at least give concrete reasons to back up your choice and not all this nonsensical “what if?” garbage. And I say all this in the nicest way possible! {insert smiley face here}

However we do know that Quarry can be KO’ed, put to sleep from the right punch. His Rich Franklin induced sleep forever being a part of UFC quick KO highlight reels.

Maia has a martial arts background. What if his striking is strong enough to use it to set up a takedown for submission? Travis Lutter knew enough to be able to takedown both Franklin and Silva.