Demian Maia has been a top-ranked middleweight for a number of years dispatching the likes of Jorge Santiago, Dan Miller and Chael Sonnen while showing off his world-class grappling abilities.
Maia has been stuck between a rock and a hard place since his unsuccessful bid to win the UFC middleweight championship against Anderson Silva in 2010.
Maia took Silva to the distance in one of the worst fights in the promotions history as Silva toyed with the submission magician in a lackluster striking match.
Since challenging for the title he has gone 3-2 with his only defeats to top-ranked combatants in Mark Munoz and Chris Weidman but while Silva rules the roost at 185-pounds UFC figurehead Dana White wont give him another crack at the title unless it was a last resort.
Their UFC 112 title bout infuriated White who left the cage side mid-way through the fight and even discussing outing Silva from the organization if he continued to put on performances like that.
Now it seems that Maia, a smaller middleweight to begin with is going to try his luck in the stacked welterweight division as he stated on his twitter today.
170-pounds is currently a division with two rulers as George St-Pierre sits on the sideline nursing an injury and Carlos Condit holds onto the interim title in the mean time.
As a result there are a number of fighters who can stake a claim at being in line to challenge for the title, throwing a high-level middleweight into the mix just makes the business end of the division a little more interesting.
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