Demian Maia vs Rick Story added to UFC 153: Rio

[Best80smovieRAD]

I assume they are stacking this card due to the horrible 147 along with just Brazil being great fans even for ****ty cards

mmajunkie

A pair of welterweights has been added to the lineup for the UFC's fall return to Brazil.

Rick Story (14-5 MMA, 7-3 UFC) will meet Brazilian Demian Maia (16-4 MMA, 10-4 UFC) when the UFC heads to Rio de Janeiro in October. Story on Tuesday announced the fight booking on Twitter.

UFC 153 takes place Oct. 13 at HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro and airs live on pay-per-view and FX. Featherweight champion Jose Aldo meets challenger Erik Koch in the evening's main event.

Story this past month snapped a two-fight skid when he topped Brock Jardine in a unanimous decision win at UFC on FX 4 in Atlantic City, N.J. That got him back in the win column after back-to-back losses to Charlie Brenneman at UFC on Versus 4 in June 2011 and Martin Kampmann at UFC 139 this past November. Both losses came on points.

The loss to Brenneman put to rest a six-fight win streak that Story had built up over nearly two years – and one that had him being mentioned in welterweight title talk.

Maia is coming off an easy night's work at UFC 148 earlier this month in Las Vegas. In that fight, his welterweight debut, Maia stopped Dong Hyun Kim just 47 seconds into the first round. He slammed Kim, injuring him and getting the TKO victory.

Maia had been in an up-and-down rut at middleweight, going 3-2 since a title fight loss to Anderson Silva at UFC 112. After back-to-back wins over Mario Miranda and Kendall Grove, Maia lost fights to Mark Munoz and Chris Weidman sandwiched around a win over Jorge Santiago.

The latest UFC 153 card now includes:

Champ Jose Aldo vs. Erik Koch (for featherweight title)
Alan Belcher vs. Vitor Belfort
Quinton "Rampage" Jackson vs. Glover Teixeira
Rony "Jason" Mariano Bezerra vs. Sam Sicilia
Cezar "Mutante" Ferreira vs. TBA
Sergio Moraes vs. Renee Forte
Reza Madadi vs. Cristiano Marcello
Jon Fitch vs. Erick Silva*
Diego Brandao vs. Joey Gambino*
Demian Maia vs. Rick Story*

[LordZardoz]

Maia by submission.

For Maia, the previous fight against DHK was not exactly a showcase of skill and ability for Maia as DHK basically got hurt on a fluke. However, he actually managed to play to his strength and opened up with his grappling. Rick Story is a decision prone wrestle-boxer. Maia should have enough striking skills to keep himself from being trivially knocked out, and I have to give the edge to Maia for grappling.

However, if Maia decides to revert to being the most mediocre Muay Thai striker in MMA, Story will get an easy decision or TKO win.

END COMMUNICATION

[mmasteve]

I thought Maia would dwarf Story but he's only got 2" of height and only 1" of reach. I say Maia wins by decision if he can get the fight to the ground.

[HugeMMAFan]

I thought Maia would dwarf Story but he's only got 2" of height and only 1" of reach. I say Maia wins by decision if he can get the fight to the ground.

Maia was always a small Middleweight. The guy tried to bulk to 205 to cut to 185, but he admitted himself, that he only managed to go to 196. He used to weigh at 190. So he's a good-sized Welterweight now, though are several Welterweights that are bigger than him.

[reamark3]

Damn, I really want to go, but tickets are super expensive and sell out in minutes. Also HSBC Arena is in the middle of nowhere. Oh well, there will be a party in my neighborhood when Aldo wins (he trains just down the block). I see him leaving the gym every once in a while. I got to get my **** together and start training at Nova União.

Hopefully Erik Silva send Fitch packing.

[Cbear]

Story makes it back to the main card with this fight.