UFC Fight Night: Maia vs. LaFlare

Demian Maia (19-6-0) vs. Ryan LaFlare (11-0-0)

Ryan LaFlare will attempt to keep his record perfect when he takes on 37-year-old Demian Maia in Brazil on UFC Fight Night.

Maia has been around for a long time, fighting in the UFC since 2007 due in part to being knocked out just once in his career. He typically takes his bouts the full length of time allotted and has done so in each of his past four fights, two of which he won. He came back from two straight losses with a victory in his last time out, defeating Alexander Yakovlev at the Ultimate Fighter Brazil finale back in May. He was able to land seven more significant strikes than his opponent in what was a unanimous decision. LaFlare joined the UFC in mid-2013 and has since won each of his first four fights by a unanimous decision. Before joining the top circuit, LaFlare fought out of New Jersey at the Ring of Combat and dominated with a perfect 7-0 record behind four knockout punches and three armbar submissions. He has dominated in each of his past three matches, landing at least 60 significant strikes each time and he is coming off a strong showing against John Howard at UFC Fight Night back in April when he won with four takedowns and 27 shots to his opponents head. There is a great chance that this fight ends up going its full length and it will be interesting to see if Maia still has enough left in the tank to take on the super-athletic LaFlare in this welterweight battle.

Maia is certainly the more versed fighter in Jiu-Jitsu as he owns a fourth-degree black belt in the art and has used that to get 2.98 takedowns per 15 minutes. His speed can also keep him off the mat and his opponents have been able to get a takedown just twice in the past six fights he’s had. Besides takedowns, Maia has the inept ability to defend himself better than many other fighters, allowing a mere 1.92 significant strikes to be landed per minute while defending 61% of them. The recent victory over Yakovlev really was a boost for the veteran as he had lost in each of his previous two trips into the octagon and was coming off an absolute beatdown by Rory MacDonald back in February of 2014. In that loss, Maia took 75 significant strikes in what would later be named fight of the night at UFC 70. He has won by unanimous decision in five of his past seven wins and that will need to be the outcome for him here once again if he hopes to hand his opponent a first career loss.

LaFlare is the more aggressive fighter of the two in this one and lands a solid 4.07 significant strikes per minute, a number that would put him at seventh among welterweight fighters who have at least five UFC fights under their belts. When it comes to grappling, LaFlare has done a poor job defending against takedowns, doing so in just 40% of his opportunities, but he’s been able to get 4.75 of his own takedowns per 15 minutes at a solid 59% accuracy. He has at least four takedowns in each of his four career UFC matches and will likely look to win via that route once again with his longer reach against Maia. Although he does not have anywhere near the amount of experience that Maia does going into this fight, LaFlare has shown better defensive abilities early on and has successfully defended against 64% of significant strikes attempted; absorbing a mere 2.05 hits per minute. His barrage of Howard’s upper body in his last outing clearly earned him the win and he should look to do that once again against Maia coming up.