Nate "The Great" Embarrasses Demian Maia, "Saves" Anderson Silva

In a battle of opposites, it would have made sense for each man to play to his strengths. Marquardt did just that, Maia did not. From the start, Maia showed his willingness to stand and trade with Marquardt despite his disadvantage in the striking game.

Twenty-one seconds later, Maia knew he had done wrong.

Nate Marquardt, with one crushing right hand, lifted Maia off the ground and sent him to the mat. He then wound up for another right on the downed Maia, but saw that his opponent had been knocked out. Marquardt pulled back on the extra right and the referee stopped the fight.

Twenty-one seconds was all it took to crush Maia’s dreams of backing up his trash talk to the champ Anderson Silva.

After the fight had been stopped, the camera found Anderson Silva in the crowd and the champ had a look of victory on his face. After several verbal jabs at each other, Maia claiming to be the man who can beat Silva and Silva being the best without saying a word, Silva got the last laugh. And he didn’t even have to step foot into the octagon.

Maia posed a genuine threat to Silva’s championship. He doesn’t have the striking ability Silva does, but he could have given the champ a run for his money on the ground. Maia had been on a mission since entering the UFC to win the most fights via submission, and he has worked hard to become the best Jiu-Jitsu practitioner in the division.

Even if he had won, and earned the shot at Silva in the future, everything would have to go right for him to win the belt.

The loss to Marquardt puts Maia in a tight spot because now he would be, at the very best, third in line for a title fight. Henderson gets first dibs and then logically Nate Marquardt would follow. Maia may find himself having to fight Michael Bisping for the next spot in line.

But being third in line for Silva’s title does Maia absolutely no good. Silva has three fights left on his contract, one of them already scheduled against Henderson. After Henderson, the next challenger could be Marquardt or newly re-signed Vitor Belfort, who poses a genuine threat to the title. Then things get interesting.

The third and final fight on Silva’s contract is the most intriguing because of the rumors and possibilities. Maia can pretty much forget ever getting a shot at the title when it’s around Silva’s waist, because Silva has bigger and better challengers on the horizon.

The most talked about potential fight would be against George St. Pierre, Welterweight champion. It would stand as a battle for best pound for pound fighter since both men have proven unbeatable in their respective divisions.

That could prove to be an amazing fight, though Silva would likely come out on top based simply on his ability to finish fights early, whereas GSP takes fights the distance more often than not.

Recent, and very loosely flying, rumors have also thrown Randy Couture into the mix to fight Silva. Couture himself has said he would cut weight to fight Silva at some catchweight in the future.

Little more than talking about the fight has happened, but the possibility is tremendous. The most revered man in UFC history against the most fear man in MMA today.

Anderson Silva versus either George St. Pierre or Randy Couture: promotional gold.

For Demian Maia, his knockout loss to Nate Marquardt may prove to be the worst 21 seconds of his career. He will never have a chance to beat the best, or even come close to it. Any title he wins, if in fact he does win in the future, will be cheapened by the fact that he didn’t win it from the best in the world.

The last three fights on Silva’s contract may shape up to be the three best UFC cards in recent memory. Unlike the Light Heavyweight division, the Middleweight division is not as stacked for the future.

Anderson Silva has picked the division clean of competition, and there is no one left to fight.

When Silva leaves, so too does the true Middleweight championship. A sad truth for anyone trying to climb the ranks of the division for their shot at glory. To be the man, you’ve got to beat the man, and if the man is out of the game then who can you beat to become the man?