Jack Slack is a pen name of a unknown freelancer famous for his great coverage of combat sports. In the latest feature he’s turned attention to the event every jiu-jiteiro can’t wait to see the great face off between Demian Maia and Jorge Masvidal.
In latest preview the famed mma analyst confirms what many including Woodley say – Maia shouldn’t have taken the fight because his stellar performances upto the point should’ve been sufficient to secure a title shot. Alas…
Demian Maia has been pretty consistent in the octagon and while Masvidal was off to an odd start he seems to be heating up rapidly.
The first thing to address is Maia’s takedown prowess. Slack writes on fightland:
Masvidal’s takedown defence has always been something to admire. He maintained the third highest rate of success defending takedown attempts of any fighter in Strikeforce and he has done a great job against them through most of his UFC career. Masvidal’s near 80% success rate against takedowns, combined with his dangerous striking is what makes him such a tough ask for Demian Maia who, while a great offensive takedown artist in his own right, is not a multidimensional threat on the feet.
On the other hand Maia’s analysis heavily relies on grappling:
What saves Maia from being a one note grappler hopelessly failing on shot after shot is that he has options for initiating the grappling. Grabbing the single, hitting the fence and immediately finishing the takedown as he did against Condit is ideal, but he is just as happy to dive underneath his man and pull them on top of him. Something that Maia has demonstrated through his career is that opponents who defend his single leg attempts perfectly on the feet will have much more trouble if he first goes to his back, then comes up on the single leg simply based on the distance that exists when wrestling on the feet. So confident is Maia that he actually dragged Matt Brown into a quarter guard / three-quarter mount at one point and still came up on his single leg to sweep.
But even though we might not think of striking when it comes to Maia Jack Slack points out a curious statement by Carlos Condit.
One understated aspect of Maia’s game is his use of strikes to improve position on the ground. While Maia battered Gunnar Nelson black and blue, more often his opponents don’t look much worse for wear. However Carlos Condit has mentioned that the one strike Maia landed in their bout shook his head up—a nice right hand which Maia then established the cross face from in half guard—and Matt Brown had hand fought well with Maia for two and a half rounds when Maia cocked back his right hand and Brown reached for it before realizing that his neck was open.
Slack concludes with this:
It is interesting to reflect that most top flight fighters have had a hard loss or two where they were finished or completely outclassed but neither Masvidal nor Maia has suffered a one sided loss in years. The last time Maia looked uncompetitive was against Anderson Silva in 2010, and you will be hard pressed to recall the time that Masvidal was truly outclassed. They are two of the best in the game despite the losses on their records and on Saturday they are fighting for the chance, it seems, at a title shot. Both deserve their time in the limelight, it is just a shame that one has to lose.
You can read more of the excellent study and check out the gifs here.
UFC 211 will be happening May 13th!
