Bloody Elbow

In the first main card bout of the UFC on Fox 2 card, uber-prospect Chris Weidman picked up a unanimous decision win over Demian Maia in the biggest fight of his career. The result was originally announced as a split decision, but it was an an error and Weidman actually did take all three cards with scores of 30-27, 29-28, and 29-28. It was a pretty ugly fight, with both fighters gassing early in the third round. Weidman took the fight on just 11 days notice so he has an excuse, but Maia had no reason to look as sapped as he did.

The bout started off fairly even, with Maia looking to land his overhand left and Weidman countering well with jabs and solid movement. Weidman managed to outstrike Maia and got a very brief takedown near the end of the round, which locked up the stanza in his favor. The second was more of the same, but this time Weidman got the takedown early. Maia got up quickly, but was outstruck for a large portion of the stanza. Maia rebounded late in the round with some solid shots, but Weidman put him on the ground once again. The last round was downright ugly, with each fighter out of gas and missing with flailing punches a lot. Fans were initially shocked that Maia got a judge's card, but that turned out to be a mistake.

What was the high spot of this fight?

The final horn? To be honest, there wasn't a whole lot of excitement here. Weidman getting the takedown late in the second round and actually working for a submission on the ADCC champ was kind of interesting though. I guess.

Where do these guys go from here?

Despite the less-than-impressive performance, Weidman's stock just skyrocketed by defeating the number six middleweight in the world. He has an excuse for gassing like he did (being a late replacement) and he still looked impressive at times. He wasn't afraid of Maia on the mat at all, and was actually looking for subs himself when he got the chance. He will definitely get another top ten opponent next, and hopefully he gets a full camp to prepare this time. If Brian Stann gets through Alessio Sakara in April, a battle of the All Americans would be pretty interesting.

Maia is in a very bad spot at the moment. He's 1-2 in his last three bouts, and he gassed badly here. He should actually consider himself lucky to a degree, because that version of Demian Maia would have got plastered by original opponent Michael Bisping. The one bout that fans still want to see Maia in is a matchup with Rousimar Palhares. The UFC tried to make that bout for this card, but Palhares turned it down because he needed some time off. That's the bout they need to go back to for Maia's next visit to the octagon.

Watch it now, later or never?

Never. I'm shocked I would say that about a Weidman fight considering what a bright prospect he is, but this was a dreadful way to kick off the Fox broadcast and you're not missing much by skipping it. Go find the video of Cub Swanson knocking George Roop's head off instead.

More Bloody Elbow coverage of UFC on Fox 2 in the full entry.