Woodley: Fans are in charge, don’t respect Maia’s art

Demian Maia is on a six-fight win streak, with submissions in three of his last four, and performance bonuses in two of the last four. He is the living embodiment of Jiu-Jitsu – calm and innovative and honorable and has been hit just 13 times in those last four fights. He hasn’t fought since crushing Carlos Condit on August 27, 2016. It was widely believed he had earned a title shot, but instead, Tyron Woodley and Stephen Thompson have a rematch on Saturday and Maia fights Jorge Masvidal at UFC Fight Night 108 Nashville on April 22, 2017.

In a curious turn, Woodley has emerged as something of an advocate for Maia’s right to a title shot.

Part of me wants to feel bad and have compassion for Demian Maia, said Woodley at the UFC 209 open workouts, as transcribed by Shaun Al-Shatti for MMA Fighting. The other part of me, I’ve been in four No. 1 contender fights. If Carlos Condit had beaten me, he would’ve immediately fought for a title shot. Rory MacDonald beat me, he fought for a title shot. If Kelvin Gastelum would’ve beaten me, they would’ve said he’s going to fight for a title shot.

So I’ve been in that position enough to know that he has to do something different himself. Unfortunately, this sport of mixed martial arts has turned into where the fans want to see you get knocked the hell out, and cut open, and in these wars. They don’t respect his art. He’s one of the best grapplers in the UFC right now, and they don’t respect his art that he brings to the table. That’s not my job to go and promote him. I have a hard enough time promoting myself.

The fans are really a little bit more in control than they realize. If they want to see a fight, the chance is that fight will happen. If they have shown in pay-per-view buys and attendance and views, in whatever, in social media posts, that they don’t really respect a grappler — we saw the same thing in Jake Shields. Jake Shields has victories over me, victories over Dan Henderson, Robbie Lawler, the list goes on, Carlos Condit. And he’s a guy who people just didn’t like his style to want to watch.

It’s mixed martial arts. No one says, ‘hey man, this guy is striking too much. Why doesn’t Stephen Wonderboy go for a takedown? Why doesn’t he go for a submission? Why doesn’t he do a clinch against the cage?’ No, they want to see the striking. They want to see the creative spinning kicks and attacks, and that’s what our society wants to see. So unfortunately for those guys, they didn’t take the time to really perfect their striking. If I would’ve done the same, I would’ve just been a wrestler.