Demian Maia back on track following win over Alexander Yakovlev
Following two consecutive losses, No. 8 ranked welterweight Demian Maia stopped the bleeding of his recent skid with a unanimous decision win over debuting fighter Alexander Yakovlev in Brazil.
In Maia's recent losses his conditioning has come into question, especially in his last fight against Rory MacDonald where he mauled the Canadian during the first round but then faded badly in rounds two and three. Maia stated before the fight he wanted to take the emotion out of his performance, which he believes caused such dramatic fluctuations of adrenaline in those last two bouts.
Maia was much more controlled in his performance this time around, tactically stalking down the freshman UFC fighter before unloading a big left hand, which counted for his first knockdown in 19 bouts inside the Octagon.
Once Yakovlev was on the mat, Maia got the mount but couldn't do any real damage as his opponent did a solid job of playing defense and never opening up his arms to give into a submission. The second round saw much of the same as Maia once again got the mount, but mostly just stayed in control of Yakovlev without exerting too much energy.
The third round brought the scariest moment for Maia as he did start to slow down finally and Yakovlev came to life with a series of hard leg kicks that started to buckle the Brazilian's knee a bit as he stepped forward. Just when it looked like Yakovlev was turning it around, Maia again got the takedown and while he started to look for an armbar or possibly a rolling triangle choke, ultimately the fight just came to an end.
"I fought very hard to try to get a submission, but I wasn't able to do so," Maia said after the fight.
Maia gets back in the win column with a clean sweep on the judges' scorecards as he tries to target another fighter in the top 10 following his dominant victory over a UFC newcomer.
