After Maia's win over Chael Sonnen at UFC 95, I wrote that he needed another win to earn a title shot and he needed to beat Nate Marquardt to justify it. Well, six months later here we are, except now Dan Henderson is supposedly the next person to get a shot at Anderson Silva. I suppose the thought process behind giving Henderson another shot is that close to 2 million people saw his highlight reel KO of Michael Bisping at UFC 100. He was also able to steal the first round away from Anderson Silva in their first match up, although he didn't do much damage at all. So I suppose that fight is somewhat marketable.
However, if Demian Maia defeats Nate Marquardt at UFC 102 his resume looks a lot better than Henderson's in my opinion. I know the Leites/Silva fight hurt Maia's chances in fear of Silva having another title defense like that since Maia's primarily a grappler like Leites. However, with a win at UFC 102 he'll have a win over a top 5 middleweight. Plus a much higher finishing rate than compared to how Henderson wins his fights. I don't think the odds of Henderson beating Silva are any better than they were the first time. So with a win at UFC 102, I think Demian Maia deserves a title shot more so than Dan Henderson. What say you?
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