Demian Maia: I said ‘of course, you don’t even have to ask

UFC middleweight contender, Damian Maia has been speaking about the moment he found out the promotion wanted to hand him his shot at 185 pound champion, Anderson Silva, saying he still can’t believe it’s going to happen.

Speaking via Tatame Magazine, Maia said:

“I knew about it last night. I still can’t believe it. My manager called me and they asked if I wanted to fight for the belt. I said ‘of course, you don’t even have to ask it.’”

“I’ll have time to prepare an strategy. I’m coming from a heavy training and I’m in a fight rhythm. I’ll let my body rest this week and I’ll start the training next week. I still don’t know where I’ll train, but I’ll go train Boxing with (Luis Carlos) Dorea for sure. My physical preparation wlll be with (Rafael) Alejarra.”

“If I say to you that I’m gonna exchange with him I’ll be lying. It’s the same thing if I say he’ll go to the ground with me. But I’ll go to this fight ready for everything. It’s a title fight and the title always was my dream. I imagined having this title shot a year ago, but I had two more fights and God, for one reason, gave it to me now.”

Silva was originally set to face Vitor Belfort at UFC 112 but The Phenom” pulled out due to a shoulder injury. The promotion explored the possibility of replacing him with Chael Sonnen before turning to the Brazilian ground wizard, Maia.