UFC's Demian Maia Smartly Decides to Move to Welterweight

Grappling wizard Demian Maia has decided to move to welterweight.

Per Maia's Twitter account:

"

Guys, now I ll moving down to 170 pounds. Next fight I ll be a welterwheight @ufc

"

This is a really smart decision for Maia for several reasons.

He's already fought Anderson Silva for the middleweight title, and we all remember how that one went.

I'd wager that not a single person in the entire world wants to see Maia fight Silva again after the atrocity they put on way back at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi. That fight will go down in history as one of the worst UFC pay-per-view main events of all time, and there's zero chance Dana White will give the pair a chance to reprise that mistake.

So no, Maia has zero chance at ever getting another middleweight title shot as long as Silva is the champion, and the Spider isn't really slowing down despite his advancing age. That's reason enough for Maia to drop to welterweight.

And Maia isn't really a big middleweight. Compared with other hulking middleweights in the division, Maia cuts very little to make the weight class. Making the move to 170 will be a more difficult process, but it should also give him a bit of a size advantage on everyone not named Thiago Alves. Because, you know, that guy is actually a light heavyweight.

My only request for Maia as he makes this momentous career decision? Please start using your jiu-jitsu a little bit more.

I know you want to show your newly developed striking skills, and I can respect that. But you're still not a very good striker, while you are one of the best in the world at taking dudes to the ground and submitting them with ease. 

Please start doing more of that. We'd appreciate it.