On the Marquardt fight, though, watch how Maia gets caught as he leads in. He’s coming in to strike with Marquardt, leaping into a punch rather than a shoot takedown or a clinch attempt. Before the fight, Maia even stated that he thought he’d be able to stand up with Marquardt, if my memory doesn’t fail me.

Bryan: Yeah, it’d be fun for Maia to win, but I can’t see it happening. I don’t think any of us do.

Tommy: We’ve lost a couple, but for MMA the year ahead is bright: Carwin-Lesnar, Rampage-Rashad, Machida-Rua II, and that’s just the UFC. Strikeforce adds Werdum-Fedor and Shields-Henderson. All high profile fights I’d part with money to see, and those are all before the halfway point this year. Boxing’s taken the bigger hit in losing Mayweather-Pacqiao, as it just doesn’t have the same depth (and promotional reliabilty) that MMA does. I don’t have any big boxing fights on my radar atm, but that might just be because it takes a backseat to a variety of other sports.

I also pretty sincerely doubt that it was his plan to stand with Miller. After all, he took him down more than once and tried for more takedowns than he completed besides. Miller did a good job of defending and getting up off his back (no mean feat). At a certain point it was clear that Maia was having MORE success on the feet than in trying to take it to the ground, so he adjusted his strategy and took a clear-cut decision. I’m not sure what there is to fault here.

“it’s one thing to triangle choke Ed Herman, it’s another to do the same to Chael Sonnen.”

Ed Herman: 5 submission losses, 3 by triangle.
Chael Sonnen: 6 submission losses, 3 by triangle.

I don’t think it was a big surprise for Maia to have triangled either of these guys. Both were underdogs against him, and it’s only since then that Sonnen has come to be regarded as more than a journeyman.

I won’t argue that he deserves a title shot. He is the best option if they’re going to insist on having an Anderson Silva title defense on the card, though.

Maia presents a unique challenge for Silva but I think he gets KO’d in quick fashion just trying to get the fight to the ground. The main problem is nobody is stepping up from the rest of the pack. It may well have been Vitor but now we have to wait for that one and they may end up doing Vitor/Sonnen in the meantime which really could be a disasterous matchup for Vitor if he gets taken down.

I’d hate to see another Leites-esque snooze fest, but I’d wager that Anderson heard enough about that last time to not let it happen again. Nothing would make me happier than seeing Maia pull guard and triangle choke or armbar Silva just to shake up the division a bit. Not that I think it will actually happen.

I certainly agree about it being “one sided and predictible” and yeah, it’s a good card that really doesn’t need the fight.

2010 is shaping up weird. If you count boxing in with MMA, does it seem like we’re losing more big fights than we are getting?