Photo by Erik Fontanez for GracieMag.com.
Coming off three consecutive wins since dropping to 170 pounds, Demian Maia lives in a special phase in his career and personal life. After celebrating the arrival of the first son, Lorenzo, Maia kept an eye on stocks in Montreal to watch the competition.
In the official UFC welterweight rankings, the Brazilian overtook Nick Diaz, who dropped to sixth. Maia, however, has been surpassed by Jake Ellenberger, who knocked out Nate Marquardt at UFC 158.
Maia spoke with GracieMag.com following the welterweight showdowns over the weekend.
“I found UFC 158 to be a great event,” Maia said. “There were important fights in my division even in the preliminaries, and found it interesting to see Rick Story earning a win. On the main card, Ellenberger had some great action and I thought Condit’s fight with Hendricks was excellent, exciting and deservedly the best of the night. (Georges) St-Pierre showed that he remains the best in the division and gave little margin for error, tactically did very well, as always, even with Nick Diaz getting a few good moments in the third round.”
Maia also addressed a possible match-up with Jake Ellenberger.
“It is still too early to talk about the future,” he replied when asked of the potential bout. “I think not only Ellenberger, but several other athletes are well ranked and with no fight scheduled yet, such as Nick Diaz, Carlos Condit, Tarec Saffiedine … and Rory McDonald, who was injured. It’s all very recent and I think we need to let the dust to settle a little. Eduardo (Alonso), my manager, is talking with them and would rather wait a bit and let the scenario will adjust itself.”