Demian Maia vs. Kendall Grove - Win Or Become Irrelevant

These days, fighters can be dropped from the UFC pretty quickly (just ask Gerald Harris).  Win or go home, as they say.  Or at the very least, win or become irrelevant.  And when it comes to the upcoming fight between Brazilian Jiu Jitsu ace Demian Maia and former TUF 3 Champion Kendall Grove at The Ultimate Fighter 12 Finale (TUF 12) on December 4, those statements were never more appropriate.

Maia has dropped two of his last four fights, losing to Anderson Silva via decision at UFC 112 and Nate Marquardt by way of KO at UFC 102.  Though he started his career showcasing the grappling skills that helped him become a world class competitor in BJJ tournaments by winning his first five five fights for the organization via submission, his last two decision victories over Dan Miller and Mario Miranda really didn’t do much to raise his stock.  On the flip side, Grove, his upcoming adversary, often looks great at some point during his fights.  The problem is that he is sometimes unable to keep the good times rolling, as he too has lost two out of his last four fights to Mark Munoz via TKO at UFC 112 and Ricardo Almeida by way of decision at UFC 101.  Whereas Maia has already fought for a UFC Middleweight Championship- albeit putting in a pretty terrible performance- Grove has yet to reach that kind of status. 

And if Grove loses to Maia, he likely never will. In fact, the UFC is sometimes all too willing to offer fighters their walking papers after even one poor performance, which is something that Grove especially needs to pay some heed to. Right now it appears that he’s still holding on in the organization because of potential and the fact that he’s a former TUF champion.  But a loss here sets him back so far that the UFC will have a big decision to make.  Keep him or no? 

For that matter, if Maia loses to a fighter like Grove, rather than an established championship caliber competitor, he’ll become an afterthought in the division pretty quickly himself.  Sure he’s an amazing grappler that is firmly entrenched in the middleweight division in the here and now.  But a loss to Grove would be a huge setback to a career that saw him get absolutely destroyed by a disinterested champion in Anderson Silva for four rounds in Abu Dhabi.  It would harm his title hopes immensely and possibly put him one loss away from being cut himself.

In the end, Grove will have his best chance to win if he’s able to keep things standing for the majority.  Maia, on the other hand, likely needs to get things to the canvas.  On one hand, he’s not known for his takedowns, necessarily.  On the other, all it takes with a guy like him is one successful shot.

A huge fight for both competitors.  Looking forward to an interesting showdown.