Dear Damian Maia: Where IS Your Jiu-Jitsu, Playboy?

  Of all the fights on the “UFC on Fox” card, none left a bitterer taste in my mouth than the evening’s curtain jerker: Demian Maia vs. Chris Weidman. Ok, so that bitter taste might have something to do with the fact that I bet $5 on Maia to win in what I felt was a “smart” underdog pick. After all, Maia is a phenom in BJJ, one of my all-time favorite grapplers. He also has more experience than Weidman, to say nothing of Chris taking the fight on two weeks notice. The deck seemed stacked in Maia’s favor. But honestly, what I really wanted was a Jiu-Jitsu war, a grappling chess match for the ages to match Sakuraba vs. Newton, or even Maia vs. MacDonald (an unheralded classic, peep it if you haven’t). I wanted the kind of dynamic, exciting grappling exchange that would show the network TV universe that “rolling” can be just as fun to watch as “standabang”. Instead, we got a three-round amateur kickboxing contest in which Weidman came out the winner, Maia came out looking awful, an...