UFC Fantasy Tournament: Middleweight Division, Semifinals

The semifinals of the fantasy tournament in the middleweight division is about to begin. First off, let's take a look at what happened in the first round:

Vitor Belfort eliminated Yushin Okami with a surprising 12-1 vote.

Demian Maia was able to get the win over Yoshihiro Akiyama with a 10-3 vote.

In a close encounter that saw the winner get 7-6 vote, Chael Sonnen defeated Wanderlei Silva.

Finally, Nate Marquardt won over Michael Bisping by a 12-1 vote.

With that said, let the semi-final fights begin.

Semifinals, Fight One: Vitor Belfort against Demian Maia

This would be a very interesting fight because both men have such a different style.

Vitor Belfort is a talented Brazilian fighter who has made a living of knocking people out cold. Although he is a BJJ black belt, he would rather keep the fight standing and use his hands to finish fights.

Demian Maia is the complete opposite. Maia is one of the best BJJ fighters in the world and is beyond a BJJ black belt. Unfortunately, even though he works hard at it, his main weakness is his stand-up skills.

There is no surprise what both men want to do in this fight. If Maia gets the fight to the ground, even though Belfort is a black belt, Maia is going to submit him. If Vitor keeps this fight on the feet, he is certain to get the KO or TKO win.

The question is, can Demian Maia take Vitor Belfort down or pull guard?

If he can, he gets the win, if he can't, it's lights out.

Who advances to the finals?

Semi-Finals, Fight Two: Chael Sonnen against Nate Marquardt

Ok so this fight took place at UFC 109 and to the surprise of many, Sonnen dominated Marquardt to a decision win. Just look at this fight as a rematch.

Nate Marquardt was really disappointed with his loss to Chael and was expecting to do better and said he should of won that fight. In a rematch, you could argue the point that Nate Marquardt didn't fight a smart fight against Sonnen at 109. In a rematch, Marquardt would be prepared for Sonnen and would use his best tools to get the win.

It's still safe to say that Nate has better strikes and better BJJ, he needs to train off his back because Chael Sonnen would do the exact same thing he did in the first fight.

Sonnen didn't waste anytime striking with Nate, he took him down and pounded him for three rounds. Sonnen is a grinder, but could he succeed with the same gameplan as the first fight against a hungrier Nate Marquardt?

Who wins and fights the winner of the Maia-Belfort fight?

Please leave your votes as always and check in next week as the final fight begins.