They are gradually coming around to an idea that there's a disconnect between what fighters say and what they do, and that even if Woodley says that he'd like to fight GSP, or Silva, or McGregor, that it's actually quite nice that he's someone who consistently defends against the top contenders in his division?

Phil: Demian Maia is a strange gift of a fighter, a man who stepped through a portal from a parallel reality where grapplers dominate the sport.

David: I think Maia is more like the Heptapods from the Arrival than Kevin Spacey’s banana eating precocious alien - teaching us MMA fans of low cunning a new language of combat, where neither force, nor aggression make up the secret formula for efficiency.

His improvements have been in the areas around it: his cage craft is famously mediocre, but his foot position awareness and ability to take small adjustment steps to line himself up has become a great deal better, going back to the Gastelum fight.

Like Khabib, part of his innovation has been taking power off his initial shot and instead focusing on pure speed to ensure that he gets a hold of the leg or the hips, before moving into single and double-leg chains, or even pulling guard into a half-guard sweep.