Maia in the main event because jiujitsu. Condit doesn't have elite takedown defense and he regularly finishes his striking combos off balance and showing his back. You can get away with that against a guy like Lawler who you know just wants to keep the fight standing. And he may be good off his back but he's not just fighting any ordinary BJJ black belt this time, he's fighting Demian f&*king Maia.
It's possible he connects and knocks out Maia before he gets strangled, but for my money that's the least likely outcome.
I can't for the life of me understand why Condit agreed to this fight either. It's a horrible style matchup and I don't think it necessarily gets him any closer to a title shot. All I can think of is he's literally just looking for a payday where he's not likely to take too much damage. He's talked before about the amount of damage he's taken over the years and what that's likely to mean for his life after fighting, and Maia will make you look bad on the ground, but he's probably not going to damage you much with strikes.
I haven't had time to look too deeply into the rest of the card but there's a few things that stand out:
- Anthony Pettis is a pretty big favourite over Charles Olivera and... why?!? I don't know if I'm going to bet Olivera yet, but I sure as hell wouldn't want money on Pettis as a favourite after his past few performances.
- If Paige doesn't beat Bec Rawlings then the UFC is doing matchmaking wrong.
