Main Event Breakdown: Demian Maia vs Jake Shields

Demian Maia returns to the octagon on 9^th October to take on former Strikeforce middleweight champion Jake Shields in Barueri, Brazil. The bout will take place at the welterweight limit, with the winner possibly in line for a shot at the title, early in the new year.

Maia dropped to welterweight after a unanimous 3 round decision loss to Chris Weidmann in January 2012 and has since gone 3-0 in the division, including a victory of highly touted Jon Fitch at UFC 156 last February.

Shields was riding high on a fifteen fight win streak until a loss to current UFC welterweight champion George St. Pierre in April 2011. The unbeaten run included victories over Mike Pyle, Carlos Condit, Martin Kampmann and Dan Henderson, where he landed a UFC record 280 strikes against the latter.

Every fight starts on its feet but fans everywhere will be hoping this one hits the deck at some stage. Both hold BJJ black belts with a combined 19 professional submission victories between them, whilst neither has ever been submitted. Maia’s full mount transition into a triangle choke against Chael Sonnen was Jiu Jitsu at its purist.

Maia holds the UFC record for most consecutive submission victories (5) and has also picked up four “submission of the night” bonuses. Half of the two time BJJ world champion’s victories in the octagon have been by submission.

Shields is no amateur when it comes to the art of Jiu-Jitsu. Holder of a black belt from Cesar Gracie, he has submitted ten professional opponents. He scored seven takedowns against Dan Henderson on the way to a unanimous 5 round decision victory in April 2010.

Maia holds the advantage on the deck between the pair and Shields will most likely keep the fight on its feet as long as possible despite recently saying: “I wanna try and submit him….I would like to take it to the ground and try to make him tap.” Although Shields later added: “this is the one guy that has the potential to submit me.” I think he’s right. Maia to win by submission.

By Simon Maguire – @SimonGMaguire