Demian Maia, in his fight with Dan Miller at UFC 109, proved that he has been putting in the hours in the gym, bringing his stand-up game up to par, complementing the submission wizardry his is known for.

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At the end of the day, however, eight of his 12 victories have come via submission. And his opponent at Saturday’s UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi, UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, has 15 of 25 victories by way of knockout or technical knockout.

As much as Maia is known for stunning submissions, Silva is known for bone-crushing knockouts.

The math is simple. Maia’s odds of winning are much greater on the ground than on the feet, and he’s not afraid to admit it.

“I put a little bit more attention in wrestling because that’s what I need to do in this fight. I need to take Anderson down,” he stated recently.

Of course, other fighters have been in the same position with Silva, namely Travis Lutter and Thales Leites, both fighters that were far better grapplers than stand-up fighters. The results speak for themselves, both lost.

But that’s nothing new. Undefeated in the Octagon, Silva is on a 10-figth winning streak, and his last loss, to Yushin Okami at Rumble on the Rock, was a disqualification do to an illegal up-kick from Silva.

In short, Silva is a dominator, easily considered one of the top two, if not thee top pound-for-pound fighter in the world.

Maia isn’t swayed. He knows what he is up against in challenging for Silva’s middleweight title.

“Anderson Silva is awesome,” he recently declared.

Maia himself is 12-1 in mixed martial arts, his only loss a 21-second knockout at the hands, literally, of Nate Marquardt. He’s earned his shot, and he’s faced such odds before.

Competing in the Jiu-Jitsu World Cup in 2005, Maia made his way to the finals against Ronaldo “Jacare” de Souza. Jacare was considered the best jiu-jitsu fighter in the world at the time, and still considered one of the premier jiu-jitsu fighters of all time.

The result? A victory for Maia.

“He was good from the top, from the bottom, (I was thinking) how I’m going to win? How I’m going to win? And I just came there, I keep very concentrated and I end up world champion in that year. I won the guy and the guy was voted in 2004 and 2005 the best jujitsu fighter in the world,” recalled Maia.

And he believes he can do it again, with Silva.

“So I think I (pass it) for this kind of situation before, to fight like the best in the world, and it will help me,” he stated.

Maia also hopes to have a home field advantage of sorts on his side come Saturday night. Abu Dhabi has a special meaning for Fabio Gurgel BJJ black belt.

“I’m pretty happy to fight there because actually what drew me to the UFC was my win in the Abu Dhabi 2007 (submission grappling tournament). So ADCC, the Abu Dhabi Combat Club is something that… I’m very glad that I was fighting there and I won. And now I can come back and fight, again.”

Only time will tell – a week to be exact – whether or not Maia’s past will be enough to lead him to a brighter future, lead him to do something that almost no one expects him to do, lead him to what other fighters can only dream of… knocking UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva from his throne.

Courtesy of Ken Pishna/MMAWeekly.com

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