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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
On Oct. 9 in Brazil, Jake Shields will take on Demain Maia in the main event of UFC Fight Night 29, and it's a matchup he's extremely excited to take.
The fight will put two of the top ground fighters in the welterweight division against one another, a style matchup which often results in semi-bad kickboxing fights, but Shields is hoping that the fight takes place on the ground.
"You never know exactly what's going to happen, but I expect this to be a jiu-jitsu fight," Shields said in an interview with MMAFighting.com. "We're both top jiu-jitsu fighters and will probably try to take the fight to the ground. It's hard to say who will be better there, we have different styles. I love to fight and find out who the best is. I never really train with the gi, and have a more aggressive style."
"I'm very fortunate to have the best jiu-jitsu camp in the United States. All these guys - Nick Diaz, Nate Diaz, Gilbert Melendez, Kron Gracie - I'm surrounded by great Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighters, so I'm with the right people to beat Maia."
The fight will headline the card in Barueri, Brazil, which will air in the U.S. on Fox Sports 1.
Penick's Analysis: The best way for this fight to be entertaining is for it to take place on the ground. They're both capable of fantastic things in the jiu jitsu game, so seeing that battle play out would be great to watch. Unfortunately, most are fearing a striking fight between two not-great strikers, and so the anticipation for the matchup isn't as high as it might be if people expected the fight to actually play out on the ground.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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