Don’t tell Demian Maia he can’t draw pay-per-view (PPV) buys.
Maia will go one-on-one against Jorge Masvidal inside the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas on May 13. The welterweight tilt is going to be part of the UFC 211 card.
Many have wondered why Maia hasn’t been given a 170-pound title opportunity. It’s been speculated that the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) doesn’t want to see Maia climb the top of the mountain due to his questionable drawing abilities. One fighter who shares this view is Masvidal.
Reigning UFC welterweight kingpin Tyron Woodley successfully defended his title against Stephen Thompson in a rematch from UFC 205. The bout was considered to be a disappointment by many for the lack of action.
During his recent appearance on MMAFighting.com‘s “The MMA Hour,” Maia said not only does he feel he wouldn’t be a worse draw than Thompson, but he’d actually deliver better PPV numbers:
“Everybody says, ‘oh this guy sell fights, these other guys doesn’t sell fights,’ but the reality is that in the welterweight division nobody sells fights well. Sometimes people push off my shoulders with these things, but in my last fight, I got a submission win, and in previous fights, I’ve had great performances and people want to watch my fights. I’m not saying that their last fight [Woodley vs. Thompson] was bad, but everybody knew it didn’t sell well, it wasn’t so exciting. So it’s not just my problem, it’s all of us together. The UFC needs to promote a little bit more, and welterweight is a division that is hard to sell nowadays and that’s it. I think that people believe in lies and they repeat the lies so many times that the people start to believe, ‘ah, Demian is not fighting for the title because he doesn’t sell.’ And that’s not true, I wouldn’t sell worse than ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson did, I think I could sell better.”
