UFC 118 Results - Demain Maia Puts on a Clinic in Beating Mario Miranda

We know how great Demain Maia's jiu-jitsu game is. Coming into this fight we figured that Miranda would have to win by keeping it standing and hurting Maia there. The funny thing is that Miranda has a black belt in BJJ. From watching this fight you wouldn't know it. Maia showed why he is worlds apart with his MMA jiu-jitsu.

Within the first two minutes of the fight Maia had already gotten two takedowns. Maia worked him with punches to open him up and took his back. The most impressive thing about Maia's ground game is the way he seemingly transitions from one submission to another. After looking for a sub from Miranda's back he grabbed for an arm but Mario escaped. Once they were back to standing Maia actually held his own on the feet. Easily he won the first round.

The second was a lot of the same. After getting a quick takedown, Miranda managed to get back up but Maia held his neck to open up yet another takedown. He controlled Miranda against the cage before gaining full mount. At this point Miranda just looked totally helpless. Maia started to look for an arm triangle but abandoned that to rain down shots. He worked for an arm but Miranda escaped again. The round ended with Maia in total and complete control.

Nothing much to say regarding the third round. It was exactly like the first two. After a takedown and a few submission attempts that Miranda gamely got out of, both fighters gassed and coasted to the scorecards. If not for the inability to finish, Maia looked very impressive coming off the loss to Anderson Silva.

Toney-Couture up next.