185 lbs: Anderson Silva vs. Demian Maia
Main Event Odds: (-800 Silva / +500 Maia )
In the main event of the evening, Middleweight champion and top pound for pound fighter Anderson Silva will look to defend his title against prolific jiu-jitsu ace Demian Maia. Silva is by far the most destructive fighter in the sport, but he has never faced a grappler of Maia’s caliber, so this is as interesting a matchup as you can possibly make for Silva at this point.
Maia is easily one of the best submission artists in the entire sport. His transition from competition jiu-jitsu, where he was a world champion, to Mixed Martial Arts has gone extremely well, and he has submitted nearly everyone he has ever fought. His lone loss came less than half a minute into his fight Nate Marquardt, when he attempted an ill-advised knee and got blasted into unconsciousness for his troubles. Considering that Silva is at least twice the striker Marquardt is, Maia is going to have to tread very carefully in the striking exchanges if he wants to avoid another quick exit.
It’s kind of pointless to talk about how good Anderson Silva’s striking is, because if you care enough about Mixed Martial Arts to be reading this, you have seen him destroy opponent after opponent in vicious fashion, even moving up to Light Heavyweight and making former champ Forrest Griffin look like an idiot. His ground game is also very good, as he proved by submitting Dan Henderson, amongst others. The only real hole in Silva’s game is his takedown defense, which is not spectacular, but it is questionable whether or not Maia has what it takes to exploit that weakness.
There is no doubt that, as good as Silva’s ground game is, Maia is good enough to submit him. The problem is, Maia’s wrestling is not as good as his jiu-jitsu, and to secure takedowns he is not only going to have to avoid Silva’s incredible kickboxing, but risk getting tied up in the clinch, where he will get destroyed. Silva is just way too good standing for Maia to deal with, and that’s that. Expect Maia to get shellacked within 3 minutes.
Prediction: Anderson “The Spider” Silva via First Round T/KO.
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