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With the report coming out earlier today that Chael Sonnen would not be getting the shot at Anderson Silva at UFC 112 with Vitor Belfort dropping out of the fight due to injury, his opponent is now known.
He will defend his Title against jiu jitsu ace and submission wizard Demian Maia on the April 10th card from Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, according to a report from Heavy.com. The report states that the fight has been verbally agreed upon and bout agreements would be finalized shortly.
Maia is coming off a victory over Dan Miller from last weekend's UFC 109 event, rebounding well from his 21 second knockout loss to Nate Marquardt last summer. Of course, he holds a highly impressive submission victory over Sonnen, so with Sonnen and Belfort out he makes the most sense at 185 lbs. for the UFC at this point.
UFC 112 airs live in the U.S. at 1PM ET on Saturday, April 10th. The event takes place live from Concert Arena at Ferrari World on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, and will also feature a Lightweight title bout between B.J. Penn and Frankie Edgar.
Penick's Analysis: I don't think Maia is ready for this fight yet, but he's probably the closest one to being able to lay claim to this shot anyway so it's not a terrible pick. It's simply a really bad matchup when his striking is where it's at in his progression as a rounded MMA fighter, and while his jiu jitsu can pose a threat to SIlva if the fight gets to the ground, he's got to find a way to get it there. When last Silva fought a full on jiu jitsu fighter, he had his five round dance with Thales Leites. Let's hope Maia can get aggressive in this one and not give us another fight like that. At this point it's extremely tough to see a way Maia can win this fight, so it doesn't make for the most intriguing fight, but it is better than many of the options that were out there.
[Anderson Silva art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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