But why maia?

When Belfort went down, the UFC was left with a difficult decision to make.

Silva, one of the world's best and most recognizable fighters hasn't fought since August. But a recent string of round-robin contests left the middleweight division without a clear-cut contender who was ready to take the fight on eight-weeks' notice.

Chael Sonnen (24-10-1 MMA, 4-3 UFC), riding the strength of three-straight wins in the UFC over quality opponents (Marquardt, Yushin Okami and Dan Miller) and bolstered by a recent barrage of verbal jabs at Silva, appeared the leading candidate. But UFC officials determined the damage Sonnen endured in his UFC 109 win over Marquardt was too great for him to overcome in time for UFC 112, so they turned to the last man to beat Sonnen: Maia, who submitted Sonnen in the first round of a February 2009 contest.

"I think it's a shame that Chael wasn't able to take the fight because I know with all that crap he was talking about Anderson this and Anderson that it would be interesting for him to put all those things he had to say into the octagon," Soares said. "But then again, you've got Demian Maia here who is a guy who submitted Chael stepping up here and taking the fight on less-than-two-months' notice.

"We appreciate Demian stepping up and taking the fight on such short notice, and now you've got two of the best at what they do stepping into the octagon."

However, the knock on Maia is that Marquardt dispatched of him via knockout in just 21 seconds in an August 2009 contest. Soares admits the timing of the loss is unfortunate, but he believes the nature of the one-punch finish actually should hamper Maia's contender status less than Marquardt's own positioning after being dominated for 15 minutes by Sonnen at UFC 109.

"It's a bummer to have a loss two fights ago," Soares said. "But a situation like that, that can happen to anybody. That just goes to show you that if anybody gets hit in the chin with a four-ounce glove, you can go down.

"And it wasn't like he got beat up for three rounds. He literally got caught, and anybody can get caught. I think it was unfortunate, but I don't think it takes away from Demian Maia as a fighter."

And, Soares contends, Maia proved in his own UFC 109 win against Miller – a win the submission ace earned largely on the feet rather than through his actions on the ground – that his standup game had improved dramatically.

"Demian obviously has improved his stand-up game quite a bit," Soares said. "I'm not going to say he's an A-plus striker now, but you definitely can see that his striking game has improved. It might not be in his best interest to stand with Anderson, but I think he can stand with Anderson a lot better than he was able to six months ago.

"He seemed like he knew how to move around the octagon much better, and he looked like he felt a lot more comfortable using his hands. He wasn't just desperate to take his opponent down. I think that's going to be important. I think that's going to present some challenges."

Soares doesn't mean to suggest that "MMA's best grappler" ought to try and turn the bout with Silva into a Muay-Thai fight, but he does believe the refined skillset makes for a more entertaining matchup.

"I'm not saying Maia's striking is going to be as good as Anderson," Soares said. "Right now, in this day and age, I think Anderson is the best standup fighter in the world. I think it's going to be difficult for anyone to say, 'I'm going to stand with Anderson.' But I think that the way Demian's striking has been improving is going to make the fight more interesting because it's not like we're expecting him to just go in and shoot. That's what everyone is thinking, but I don't think he's going to do that.

"I don't think the bell is going to ring and Maia is just going to jump in and shoot. He's going to have to exchange a little bit, and that's going to be interesting."