Maia has taken down some good wrestlers before. That being said, I have a hard time seeing him take down Woodley. Not only does Woodley have that great wrestling pedigree, he is strong as hell and will be working his takedown defense hardcore.
Maia is going to have to work his takedowns hardcore and work on some new tricks. His wrestling continues to impress me and the thing about him is he can still get you even sitting from half guard.
TheRealJoker -Maia realized no matter how good you are off your back it is a losing proposition in high level MMA. You have to get the takedown or sweep.RockTheVote - I think Woodley loses, but I've thought that before. The beauty in Maia's wrestling is that even when his shot gets stopped, he's still making you grapple him and it isn't long before he drags you into deep waters.
This. Maia has a unique blend of takedowns. I really like his chain takedowns. When he gets stuffed he pulls guard but he doesn't plan on fighting off his back. He just tries to pull the leg in close so he can hop back on the single. Jiu jitsu guys who don't necessarily have an extensive wrestling background can learn a lot from Maia on how to apply takedowns for MMA.
There's more than one way to take a guy down. Not everybody is going to be a D1 All American with an explosive blast double in their toolbox!
scrappydoo - Let me state first. Maia is one of my all time favs. He beats Woodley wrestling vs wrestling because he"s been working on it so hard. Gets Tyrone down and pythons him.
However, I think his standup was exposed tonight and Thompson and Lawler best him standing up. Thompson is evasive enough to avoid Maia"s shot, and Lawler sprawls to avoid it.
Perhaps he doesn"t defend the belt.
I don't think his standup was exposed tonight because not too many people were thinking highly of Maia's standup in the first place.
Maia did go through a phase where he trained a lot of stand then he must have woke up one morning and remembered how good his BJJ is.
Politically Incorrect -He doesn't beat Woodley, you're crazy.
The dude couldn't take pure boxer Masvidal down.
That statement makes it seem as though A. You have no idea who Masvidal is, his background and skills, abd B. You didn't watch the fight last night and the takedowns that happened in it
maia barely got by masvidal to be honest. masvidal decided to go to the ground with maia in round 2 and got taken down. If he just stayed up, the fight was his all the way.
I would love to see Maia beat Woodley but I think that's a really tough fight for him...
Politically Incorrect -Soul Gravy -Politically Incorrect -He doesn't beat Woodley, you're crazy.
The dude couldn't take pure boxer Masvidal down.
Did they teleport to the ground then?look up the numbers mong, basic Masvidal stuffed the piss out of 90% of takedowns
And yet a significant portion of the fight was on the ground.
Maia's standup was good enough to let him survive on his his feet, and that's as good as it needed to be.
Politically Incorrect -Condescending idiots pretending like Masvidal is an NCAA Champion and one of the best Mizzou wrestlers ever, also pretending like he is an ADCC champ.
Hipsters gonna hip, pumping up Masvidal to give themselves confidence in Maia's bad performance, all while pretending like they've known Masvidal since he was 12 years old.
No, you are just mad that people exposed your ignorance while at the same time pointing out that he in fact wrestled in high school, has very good takedown defense (78% career) and trained with some amazing grapplers in the lead up to this fight.
And it showed. Maia barely got past him, even with his incredible bjj, and Masvidal really put in an excellent showing in both defending bad positions and often stopping Maia's offense.
Won't even matter if Maia doesn't take him down in the traditional sense. He takes backs standing. He's like a fucking snake. He exhausts Woodley (bar a bolo right hand landing) and finishes him in the 4th. Demian is the king in waiting and now he'll finally have his crown.
Bigtrain2681 -Won't even matter if Maia doesn't take him down in the traditional sense. He takes backs standing. He's like a fucking snake. He exhausts Woodley (bar a bolo right hand landing) and finishes him in the 4th. Demian is the king in waiting and now he'll finally have his crown.
This.
I also respectfully disagree with OP. (Maia is my favorite current UFC fighter.) I think Maia is better than all 3. A. I think Lawler had his soul taken from Woodley and would get submitted ala Condit style. B. Wonderboy would also be easy pickings. One takedown and there is a big difference between Woodley trying to guillotine you and Maia's RNC. C. Woodley is 5'9 and Maia said would be harder to take down. Nevertheless, Maia usually fares well against way bigger wrestlers. Recall the lateral drop of TRT and everything under the sun Sonnen? Furthermore, all these guys have the best TKD supposedly? But who has tried to take down Woodley? The guy has all but abandoned his roots anyway and he only has 6 KOs (one of which was the Condit mess.) Woodley mentioned Shields last night. I think he forgot that he lost that fight. The reason for Maia's success in his 3.0 version is his strict adherence to the BJJ doctrine. Distance management is paramount; all the way in or all the way out. Avoid the striking lottery as Paulao use to say. And he never got finished even with all the drugs and mental issues.
I'll go with what Mark Schultz used to say (according to Chael). The only thing that beats Wrestling is Jiu-Jitsu. The problem is that almost all Grapplers can not resist falling in love with their hands. This especially when you have idiots like Con man squawking at you. Even Maia's 2.0 version.
If gamebred made his face look like that with his one punch slap boxing he was doing last night then all Woodley is going to have to do is defend the take down for a round or two while landing the occasional body shot. If the Thompson fight along with Maia lack of a gas tank proved anything it's that this is going to be a crap-tacular fight. Prepare for woodley to run away from takedowns and for Maia to butt scoot the entire fight.
Woodley is overrated. Up until he KO'd Robbie, who actually thought highly of him? Nobody! When I hear about Woodley, the first image that pops into my head no bs is the image of Nate Marquardt going full blown Mike Tyson on his ass. Hit him with one of the most beautiful combos I've seen in MMA, for the picturesque fairytale ending KO. Woodley won't be able to avoid the octopus Maia from taking his back. Once Woodley starts gassing it's over for him. Maia doesn't need to overpower Woodley with a shot. He'll just work once they're on the ground to take position. Woodley is lazy af, and I've seen fights where he fails to get off or take chances, like the Gastelum fight and the Wonderboy fight. He fights tentative, and I doubt he'll be able to defend the choke once Maia takes his back. It's not a matter of will it happen, it's a matter of when it happens.
Maia's standup is atrocious, Woodley starches him badly. Unfortunately.