Stephen Thompson blev slutligen erbjuden en titelmatch mot welterviktsmästaren Tyron Woodley, och den 12 november kliver de in i oktogonen under UFC 205 i New York. Om Stephen skulle skada sig inför mötet berättar Demian Maias tränare Eduardo Alonso att Maia gärna tar matchen, och detta hade han att säga via ”MMAFighting”:
A title shot is a unique opportunity you don’t turn down. But if any injury happens to ‘Wonderboy’ and we get a call, unless Demian is injured, we will take the opportunity because you never know what tomorrow will bring. We see what happened to ‘Jacare’ [Souza], for an example, who unfortunately got injured and couldn’t get his chance. [Michael] Bisping got the chance and became champion, and ‘Jacare’ is still going after his opportunity.
The idea now is to face the winner of this fight. Demian deserved a title shot already, and it’s pretty obvious after this fight that he’s the next in line. I don’t see anyone deserving it more than him.
You can’t ignore what ‘Wonderboy’ did to deserve it, especially his last couple of wins over [Johnny] Hendricks and Rory MacDonald. When ‘Wonderboy’ beat Rory, that motivated us to take the fight against Condit because we already imagined he would be close to a title shot.
Demian har i dagsläget radat upp hela sex segrar, där tre av dem tillkommit via submission. Senast ströp han ut Carlos Condit då de möttes under ”UFC on FOX 21”.
