How much longer can Demian Maia’s run last?
There’s so much bad news swirling around these days. So let’s now pause for a breath of fresh air and talk about [autotag]Demian Maia[/autotag].
Maia (28-9 MMA, 22-9 UFC) is one of the sport’s true class acts. He’s been with the UFC since UFC 77, way back in 2007. He’s challenged for championships at welterweight and middleweight.
Maia’s 42. He seemed on his way out when he dropped three straight fights in 2017-18 to competitors who have held full or interim welterweight belts.
Since then? He’s won three in a row, two of them via finish, most recently a first-round submission of Ben Askren that sent the latter into retirement.
Now Maia returns to face [autotag]Gilbert Burns[/autotag]. No disrespect intended to Burns (17-3 MMA, 10-3 UFC), a fine fighter, but it’s hard not to root for Maia. A win here would tie Maia with Donald Cerrone with 23 UFC wins, the most in company history. For a guy who has lasted this long and got right to the brink without winning a belt, that would be one fine consolation prize.
[opinary poll=”whats-your-pick-for-gilbert-burns-vs-dem-DYKXSz” customer=”mmajunkie”]