Demian Maia is looking at another short camp fight against a very good opponent. Kamaru Usman is rumored to be one of the guys to avoid in this division. Maia himself acknowledged it saying:
“I’ve been in this position before when you never lose, when your record is clear, people are avoiding you. But his stuff is not just hype. There’s a little bit of hype, he’s pretty tough and he showed that in his previous fight.”
Maia added he accepted the fight so he would help the UFC:
“I think we started negotiations because the UFC really needed me here,” Maia said. “Of course, it was not perfect for me because it was short-notice and the other guy that I’m fighting is a big, tough guy, but there were a few things.
“I started the promotion here three years ago and it’s nice to come here and do the first event for the fans here and for the first time in South America outside Brazil, and we do our deal with UFC and we do our contract and so we decide to come.”
Maia weighed in on 171 lbs this morning. Interestingly he’s an even bigger underdog now than usually:
Maia added:
“I normally like to watch the fights of my opponents, but I don’t watch like crazy, like every day, so I watched a few fights because the fight was on short notice I didn’t have time to watch all these fights,” Maia said. “I watched some of his fights.”
You can watch this whole interview below:
