Report: Demian Maia to face off against Nate Quarry at UFC 91
September 18, 2008 by Adam Morgan
The Brazilian magazine Tatame is reporting that jiu jitsu standout and undefeated MMA fighter Demian Maia will be returning to the UFC at UFC 91 on Nov. 15 in an undercard bout against Nate Quarry, one of the contestants from the first season of The Ultimate Fighter reality television show.
“I didn’t study his fights yet, I’ll receive a DVD with his fights, but I only watch my opponents’ fights when the fight gets closer. I’m training a lot my stand up game like for the last fight, but every time I can I do some BJJ trainings,” Maia told Tatame.
Maia is 3-0 in the UFC and 8-0 overall, recording wins over the likes of Ryan Jensen, Ed Herman, and most recently Jason MacDonald at UFC 87 in August. Maia is considered one of the best pure jiu jitsu fighters in all of MMA and all of his victories in the UFC have come by way of submission.
Nate Quarry, a former contestant on the first season of The Ultimate Fighter, made his return to the Octagon last September. Quarry hadn’t fought since a 2005 loss to Rich Franklin due to a back injury and returned after successful back surgery to defeat Pete Sell at UFC Fight Night 11. Since returning to the UFC he is 2-0 with victories over Sell and Kalib Starnes.
UFC 91 is headlined by a heavyweight title bout between current UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture and former WWE superstar Brock Lesnar. The card also includes a rumored light heavyweight clash between Quinton Jackson and Wanderlei Silva as well as a lightweight matchup pitting Kenny Florian against Joe Stevenson.
This fight should be outstanding. Both are very entertaining so their styles should make for a highly technical affair. I am a fan of both. Picking one is hard but I’m gonna have to pick Demian because I believe is game is better than Nate’s. Another great match up by Joe Silva. UFC 91 keeps getting better.
Am i the only person who’s not impressed by Maia?
everytime i hear his name it’s followed by loads and loads of praise..
quite frankly i think he’s kind of slow, and his gas tank worries me..
now, he IS
Im gonna be at that show!!!!!!!! SO excited
sorry about that..
he IS good at JJ, but, his striking is sub par..
i believe it was the mcdonald fight, he was just taking hits in the standup, not really blocking or trying to avoid, and then making sloppy attempts at takedowns..
idk.. he’s a good fighter but i’d have to pick Quarry over him..
November 15th can’t come soon enough, whoever wins this fight will probably be one more win away from a date with destruction by Anderson Silva.
Rich, what you saw was Maia slowly taking Jason away from his game and making him play into his. And so, the victory was via submission.
Someday, Demian Maia will fight Anderson Silva. When they do…oh boy- oh boy!!! I hope I will be able to attend that’s for sure.
Maia should win this,unless he gets distracted watching Nate Quarry demonstrate the most awkward stand up in MMA.
If all these fights happen on this card, there is no way the year end show will be able to top it.
This should be on the PPV portion for sure. That said, you have to feel bad for Nate a little. Joe Silva made this matchup to showcase Maia. They looked at styles and put Maia in against somebody with a name to get over with the fans.
Not that Nate is all that great but the matchup is for him to lose and build up Maia, he knows that too, so I think it will be closer than expected as he will be training hard as if he loses it might end his UFC career.
Maia wins this for sure but Quarry is no slouch.
xx2000xx is right on the money concerning this match-up, though.
I think I’m gonna have to agree with Rich S on this one. Maia’s not really blowin’ my skirt up. So he’s got BJJ skillz. Big friggin’ deal. Join the club. Is that supposed to be impressive here? Show me more than one dimension or REALLY, REALLY excel in that one dimension. And quite frankly, I don’t think he’s all THAT impressive in his transitions, which is the hallmark of a good practitioner. I still think Maia wins this one due to Rock only being able to punch with his arms at 110 degree angles, regardless of the punch. Hook? What’s a hook? I’m just gonna swing my arms at you like an oversized tube of Genoa Salami.
Steelbus-
I guess you don’t consider winning the Abu Dhabi too impressive. I mean, it’s only the most prestigious BJJ tourney in the world and Maia dominated his weight class. hmm…