After a solid run at middleweight that included a shot at Anderson Silva’s UFC title, Demian Maia confirmed rumors Wednesday that he is dropping down to welterweight.
After running up a 6-0 record in small organizations, Maia (15-4) was brought into the UFC and immediately went on a five fight win streak, culminating in a first round tap of Chael Sonnen at February 2009’s UFC 95.
But a 21-second knockout at the hands of Nate Marquardt temporarily derailed his title aspirations until he was given a shot at Silva after a decision win over Dan Miller at February 2010’s UFC 109.
Since losing to Silva at UFC 112 in a decision that infuriated fans and UFC president Dana White for the wrong reasons, Silva is 3-2 with decisions over Mario Miranda, Kendall Grove and Jorge Santiago (all out of the UFC) while dropping decisions to Mark Munoz and Chris Weidman, the latter of which opened the second UFC on Fox event.
The Sonnen submission was the 34-year-old’s last finish of his career, a span of eight fights. The top-flight Brazilian jiujitsu competitor has mostly abandoned his strongest asset in recent bouts, preferring to go with a stand-up attack which has had mixed results.
Here’s Maia’s tweet about the move: