D. Maia (left) was surpassed by J. Shields (right). Photo: Lucas Carrano / SUPER FIGHTS
Brazilian dominance until the co-main fight of UFC Fight Night 29, this Wednesday (09) in Barueri (SP), was not repeated in the main fights of the night. Fans' expectations were that Demian Maia washed the souls of the Brazilian fans after the defeat of Erick silva for Dong Hyun Kim, but the Brazilian had a tepid fight against Jake Shields and ended up defeated, by split decision, on the judges' scorecards.
In the first round, the Brazilian dominated his opponent in grappling, managing to stay on top most of the time and bothering his opponent even when he played from below, a position that lasted until the end of the five minutes. The ground fight with Shields on top continued at the start of the second round. The North American scored and undermined the Brazilian's resistance in the partial, but was never close to finishing. The tepid fight disturbed the public and drew the first boos from the crowd.
At the beginning of the third round, Demian bet on his striking and showed great improvement in his stand-up game. The Brazilian managed to connect with good blows and opened the way to take the fight to the ground, but ended up giving up the position to Shields, who dominated the rest of the session. After three minutes of very little action in the fourth round, the boos once again echoed through the stands.
In the fifth round, the fight became more open, with good takedowns for the North American and the Brazilian's dominance in the stand-up fight. Maia had a good moment towards the end of the fight, but, already tired, he was unable to knock out his rival. In the end, two judges understood that Shields was better in the fight and only one gave Maia the victory. Thus, the Brazilian ended up suffering his first defeat since moving down to the welterweight category.
Check out the full results of the event below:
main card
Jake Shields derrotou Demian Maia in the judges' split decision;
Dong Hyun Kim defeated Erick silva by knockout in R2;
Thiago Silva defeated Matt Hamill via unanimous decision;
Fábio Maldonado defeated Joey Beltran via split decision;
Rousimar Toquinho submitted Mike Pierce with a heel hook in R1;
Raphael Assunção derrotou TJ Dillashaw in the judges' split decision;
Preliminary Card
Igor Araújo defeated Ildemar Marajó in a unanimous decision by the judges;
Yan Cabral defeated David Mitchell via unanimous decision by the judges;
Chris Cariaso defeated Iliarde Santos by technical knockout in R2;
Alan Nuguette defeated Garett Whiteley via TKO in R1;
Comments