If Tyron Woodley and Stephen Thompson didn’t have an exciting five-round war at UFC 205, it’s safe to say Demian Maia would be the welterweight title challenger at UFC 209. Instead, “The Chosen One” will defend his championship against “Wonderboy” once again.
Before that fight was made official, Woodley was holding out in hopes of getting a big money fight with the likes of Nick Diaz, Georges St. Pierre, and Michael Bisping. Woodley wanted to, “shut everybody up” so he decided to take a rematch with Thompson instead.
Maia took to his Twitter account to respond to missing out on his title opportunity:
It's official,so I wish you a great fight & trust the winner will give me the opportunity you both have been given. @TWooodley @WonderboyMMA pic.twitter.com/gaxsa5pK8f
— Demian Maia (@demianmaia) January 10, 2017
The reigning 170-pound champion caught wind of Maia’s post and gave the Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace his due.
You are a classy dude and look forward to sharing the Octagon with you. For what it's worth I thought we should have been fighting now.
— Tyron T-Wood Woodley (@TWooodley) January 10, 2017
Maia had expressed concerns over how the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) was determining title challengers. He claimed to have sources who told him Woodley was offered numerous fights, but he was never contacted. He also said if he wasn’t the number one contender, then the only fight that would make sense is Woodley vs. Thompson II.
Woodley didn’t ignore Maia’s comments and claimed he wasn’t ducking the Brazilian. “The Chosen One” did say he would face Maia one day, but he wanted to take certain fights at the right time.
Maia’s last bout was against former interim title holder Carlos Condit. Maia took “The Natural Born Killer” down and locked in a rear-naked choke to force the tap. The fight didn’t last two minutes. Maia has been on a roll since moving down to welterweight. His only two losses in the division are to Jake Shields and Rory MacDonald.
Since his last loss to “Red King,” Maia has won six in a row. In those six victories, he has earned three submissions with all of them coming by way of rear-naked choke.
