Demian Maia is on a hot streak few fighters of any age, much less his own have seen. Yet, he was passed over for a UFC Welterweight title shot. He's not eliminating himself from the equation, though.
According to Maia's longtime manager Eduardo Alonso in an interview with MMA Fighting, Maia would be willing to step in on short notice to fight for the title if UFC 205 challenger Stephen Thompson were to get hurt.
"A title shot is a unique opportunity you don’t turn down…But if any injury happens to ‘Wonderboy’ and we get a call, unless Demian is injured, we will take the opportunity because you never know what tomorrow will bring. We see what happened to ‘Jacare’ [Souza], for an example, who unfortunately got injured and couldn’t get his chance. [Michael] Bisping got the chance and became champion, and ‘Jacare’ is still going after his opportunity. You never know what will happen tomorrow. An opportunity like this, you say yes and do your best,” said Alonso.
If Maia doesn't get the opportunity to step in at UFC 205 this November, he would prefer to fight for the title sometime in early 2017.
"In a perfect world, this title fight could be in January, February, any time works for us," Alonso said. "Demian is in fight rhythm. The most important thing now is to get the title shot. After the fight is set, we don’t have any problem waiting until March or April, too."
Eduardo Alonso also states that Maia turned down a potential fight with former UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre.
"Everybody knows that Demian’s dream is to become UFC champion. Not everything in life is about money, and Demian wants this title fight over anything," Alonso said. "Right now we don’t think about anything besides that. That’s out plan A and plan B. Fighting someone like GSP would obviously be an important episode in his career. We have the utmost admiration for him as an athlete, it would be an historic fight, but it would be more interesting with Demian as the champion. Fighting an athlete like GSP, who retired without losing his belt, and you don’t have the opportunity to become the champion with a win over him, I don’t think it’d be the best. Right now we don’t think about it, but we would have to sit down and take a look if a real offer is made to evaluate it, but it would be more fair and interesting to get this fight as champion,” Alonso said.
While Maia’s next fight has yet to be announced, it would be hard to see him do anything else other than fight for the welterweight title.
