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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
UFC Fight Night 29 hits Barueri, Brazil on Wednesday night, airing live on Fox Sports 1 with a headlining fight between Demian Maia and Jake Shields. Providing commentary for the night's event will once again be the tandem of Jon Anik and Kenny Florian, and both men spoke with MMATorch last week to discuss the night's card. Here are their thoughts on the night's main event:
Kenny Florian on the stylistic matchup: A lot of times we see two wrestlers going at it they kind of cancel each other out and end up striking for a lot of it. I'm not sure I see that. It could definitely happen, we could see a striking match between these two. We saw [that type of fight] between GSP and Shields, this could be the same thing with Maia and Shields, two excellent guys on the mat who could maybe keep it standing.
But on the ground these guys are very, very close as far as skill level. Maia's the better submission guy, Jake Shields very good at keeping position and obviously comes from a strong wrestling background. But when you look at what Maia's done at 170 lbs. and how quickly he has picked up the wrestling game has been very impressive. I think he's definitely getting a big advantage from going down to 170 lbs., he's really manhandling a lot of these guys. We saw what he did against Fitch and Rick Story, two very good wrestlers, and Maia just threw them around the cage in extremely impressive fashion.
Florian on what's on the line: There's a little bit more on the line for Maia. If Maia beats a guy like Jake Shields I think we could see him competing for the belt in the very near future. And Jake Shields, for him to get a win over Maia, who has looked almost unbeatable at 170 that's gonna be huge for him as well and put him right up there once again.
Florian on what Shields must do to win: The game's going to be won or lost with Jake Shields on the wrestling. I know he'll get in on the legs with Maia, but sometimes we don't see the same finishing from Jake Shields on the legs. He loves getting in on that high crotch, sometimes it becomes difficult for him to finish it and run the pipe on that one. I think the key is he has to finish his takedowns. He has to finish the double legs, the singles, and put Maia on his back and look to really control Maia with his positioning. I think he has to be a little bit more conservative once the fight hits the mat, but the fight will be won or lost on wrestling for Jake Shields.
Jon Anik on Shields' status should he lose and what he must do to win: I think any time you're making decent money, you want to make sure you're performing. And I think just given how swollen, for lack of a better word, the roster is right now, I think everyone is really on notice. I think with the exception of maybe, I don't know, the top 25-30 guys, I think you fell like after every fight you're going to have to prove yourself in negotiations, especially if it's a loss. So yeah, it's a huge fight for Jake Shields.
The other thing is, you always want to see where a guy's desire is at when they're 37, 40 pro fights into their career, 34-years-old. Shields doesn't need to do this anymore, but I think he still thinks he has some eliteness in there left. And what a test for him here. Demian Maia is a guy who just burst onto the scene. When he came into the UFC he was all the rage, and now he's a guy nobody wants to fight. Huge opportunity for Jake Shields to be the road underdog here, and if he can come through, obviously he vaults into the top five in the eyes of a lot of people.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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