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[Sakara=Excitement]

Chris Weidman says UFC on FOX 2 win proves he belongs with division's best | MMAjunkie.com

CHICAGO – A win is a win is a win.

For fast-rising – but still relatively unknown – Chris Weidman, you don't pass up an opportunity to fight on a FOX main card against a top-10 middleweight.

Not even if you get just 11 days' notice and still have 32 pounds to shed in order for it to be official.

Although it wasn't a particularly aesthetically pleasing three-round affair between Weidman (8-0 MMA, 4-0 UFC) and Demian Maia (15-4 MMA, 9-4 UFC), it'll still look the same as a highlight-reel knockout in the win column.

The bout was one of three network-televised UFC on FOX 2 fights that took place at Chicago's United Center.

"There was a lot of question marks for me going into this fight as far as cardio and conditioning, my weight cut, 32 pounds in 10 (or so) days," Weidman told MMAjunkie.com (UFC blog for UFC news, UFC rumors, fighter interviews and event previews/recaps | MMAjunkie.com). "I'm more proud with that than anything else.

"It came down to heart in the end, and we both had it."

The middleweight started off with both men looking to flex their standup skills. Both found success with their punches and kicks early on. Weidman was in control on the mat briefly in a scramble, but overall, his aggression and octagon control secured him the opening stanza.

An early Weidman takedown started off the second round, but Maia was able to get back to his feet. Weidman was able to land the cleaner, harder punches once they again stood in range. By that time, however, the crowd started to get restless as the pace of the fighters began to slow. Combinations had morphed into lazy, single strikes.

After eating a few solid knees from Maia in the last minute of the round, a late Weidman takedown was icing on the cake.

The third round was largely forgettable as both men were extremely fatigued and appeared to be fighting on pure instinct. Sluggish takedown attempts from Maia were thwarted with ease, and the pair stood for the majority of the round and did their best "Toughman" impressions.

It was a slow-paced, grueling fight for both fighters, but Weidman did enough to earn the unanimous-decision victory.

"It's no secret Demian Maia is an awesome fighter, especially on the ground," Weidman said. "And he's got good standup. The 10 (or so) days I had to prepare, I was ready for that."

Weidman took a big risk by signing on the dotted line to fight the former title challenger, and now he's entitled to reap the benefits that follow.

"Walking out of the octagon after a fight like that with a 'W' was exactly what I wanted to accomplish," Weidman said. "I showed everyone and myself what I am capable of. This win puts me pretty far up the middleweight ladder and right in the mix with the rest of the top fighters."

Here's hoping the kid gets a proper training camp someday.

[CtGreat]

Man Mia looked soooooooo bad tat fight. He looked like miller in the miller vs Bisping fight..it was kindve embarrassing

[sonofsteven]

I have to agree with Chris on this one. He is a legit concern for anyone at 185 and I'd love to see him against Munoz if it times out with Munoz' healing. CW has had answers for a couple stiff challenges in his past couple fights and a fight with MM would def let us know if Weidman deserves to mentioned in title talk.

[TapOut27]

Just imagine how he would have wrecked Maia had he come into the fight in shape and not cutting that much weight.

[Flynnja]

For taking the fight on such short notice I thought he did great. Still weird how Maia gassed bad too.

[beau420]

Both guys proved they can look OK in a sparring session.

I liked Weidman's standup in the first round. And some of his takedown's were OK.

Apart from that, neither guy impressed me much at all.

Weidman was just doing what Rogan said. Watching Demian's left hand and countering after he throws it. Both guys took and threw a lot of sloppy shots. And it didn't look like just a cardio thing.

What Maia did this fight, he did during his fight with Munoz and he did against Jorge Santiago....only difference was that Weidman stood 6 inches outside the pocket, instead of inside like Munoz and Santiago did.

Maia's cardio did look worse than normal. Weidman can use the '10 days excuse' this time, he gets a pass, but this is his only fight that has gone the entire 3 rounds since his UFC debut against Alessio Sakara. And the Sakara fight was as grueling a grapplefest and sloppy punching as this one was.

I would like to see Weidman go up against some more top 10 guys before I consider him a real contender.

And Maia takes a step down...he should really focus on his footmovement. Maybe trying to switch boxing stance to a soutpaw...help him improve his right. And get back to him submission game.

Not sure who Maia's boxing coach is, but he should be ashamed. Maia's striking looked better when he faced Anderson Silva in the UAE. He used his jab and threw some feints and had more head movement.

It would be interesting to hear what he actually focussed on before this fight. Maybe just his wrestling defence again and his submission game (which wasn't going to work against Weidman)

[Flou]

I don't think victory over Demian Maia puts anyone in the top10 at this point. As long as you have good takedown defence you are okay. Demian's boxing is just plain bad and basically that haymaker left he throws pretty much all the time leaves him open for all sorts of counter attacks. Maia really should improve on that and someone should remind him that he is a world class BJJ black belt, take the guys down and submit them.

[goodtimes]

I don't really get why guys who have awesome grappling focus purely on improving striking; they then become only good grapplers with mediocre striking. It would make a lot more sense for Maia to focus heavily on his wrestling and cardio to try to grind on guys and take them down. People should notice that the most successful guys are ones who build skill sets that compliment their background, like how Shields and Fitch built really solid BJJ, and Sonnen has gotten enough BJJ to not get subbed all the time.