On July 29, UFC Welterweight Champion Tyron Woodley (17-3-1) will face Demian Maia (25-6) in the main event of UFC 214 to defend his title. Woodley confirmed the fight, which will be held in Anaheim, California; in the program UFC Tonight.
Woodley, who has twice defended his belt against Stephen Thompson (one of the fights ended with a draw at UFC 205 in New York), has accepted to once again put his championship on the line after Maia insisted repeatedly to get this fight following Woodley’s last bout.
Maia is a 39-year-old Brazilian, born in Sao Paulo, and with a high-profile Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu career. He is one of the few UFC fighters that focuses on this fighting style, which complicates many of his rivals and makes them suffer with his techniques although he only has three knockouts during his professional career.
He has never been able to win a title, although on multiple occasions he has been handed the award for performance of the night. His last victim was American Jorge Masvidal, whom he defeated on May 13 of May via a split decision.
After repeatedly asking UFC boss Dana White for this combat, Maia finally will fight for Tyron’s belt with serious chances of winning. Maia will probably try to move the fight to the floor and stay there to make use of his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to subdue Woodley while at the same time defend himself better.
The night will also feature the fight for the Light Heavyweight title between Daniel Cormier and Jon ‘Bones’ Jones. The event will take place on July 29 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
The bout will be a rematch of the main event of UFC 182, which saw Jones successfully defend the light-heavyweight title with a unanimous-decision victory.
Jones and Cormier were meant to settle the score with one another in the main event of UFC 200 in July 2016, but that fight was cancelled due to Jones failing a pre-fight drug test.
