UFC_Fight_Night_29The Ultimate Fight Night 29 event is set for Wednesday, October 9, with the preliminary card airing on FOX Sports 1 at 5 p.m. ET. The main card will begin at 7 p.m. ET with the main event featuring a welterweight scrap between former middleweight title challenger Demian Maia and former welterweight title challenger Jake Shields.

It’s a decent card on paper with the co-main event featuring another welterweight bout between highly touted Erick Silva taking on Dong Hyun Kim. This will be the first UFC event since Jon Jones and Alexander Gustafsson gave us an instant classic in the main event of UFC 165 last month. Let’s get to the top three questions going into this event.

Does Demian Maia earn his fourth consecutive win as a welterweight to put himself in line for a title shot or number one contender’s matchup?

Maia has looked really impressive in his run as a welterweight and has flat out dominated his opponents, including former title challenger Jon Fitch in his last outing at UFC 156 in February. He Fitch’ed Jon Fitch as UFC President Dana White would later day, and dominated him to win a unanimous decision. Maia is a submission ace with good takedowns, but he has also improved his striking skills considerably over the last couple of years. It’ll be a tough test for Jake Shields who seems to the same fighter he was a few years ago without a huge rate of improvement. Maia’s size and submission acumen could pose problems for all of the top welterweights in the division.

Should the hype train for Erick Silva leave the station once again if Silva pulls off the win against Dong Hyun Kim on Wednesday night?

Erick Silva is coming off an impressive submission win over Jason High in his last outing, and had a “Fight of the Night” performance against Jon Fitch in a unanimous decision loss in the outing prior to that. Silva is a huge welterweight that’s really explosive with the ability to put opponents away via TKO/KO or submission. In fact, he has only been to a judges decision twice in his entire career. He’s only 29 years old, but will be facing another crafty veteran in Dong Hyun Kim who is a big welterweight in his own right. Also, Kim has only lost twice in his MMA career with one of the losses being TKO due to injury(Demian Maia). So it’ll be a nice matchup to see if Silva deserves to keep getting the hype he has received or not.

Could this be the last chance for Thiago Silva to make some noise in a light heavyweight matchup against Matt Hamill?

Silva’s record since 2009 is (2-3, 2 NC) with the two no contests coming due to failed drug test (marijuana and submitted false urine). Silva was thought to be a top 10 light heavyweight just a year or two ago, and he’s still a dangerous fighter for most opponents. However, a loss against Matt Hamill (a guy that retired and then came back) could spell the end for the Brazilian. It’s a fight that he certainly can win as Hamill’s wrestling base has eroded due to time/injuries. Silva has decent takedown defense as well, so this fight could be have “Fight of the Night” honors written all over it should the two stand and trade the way I think they will. If Silva take an L, it’s almost certain cut time from the promotion, and we’d probably see him on a Bellator fight card in no time.

The rest of the card is filled with fun fights. The other main thing to keep an eye on is TJ Dillashaw who will be gunning for his fifth consecutive win in a matchup against savvy veteran Raphael Assuncao. Dillashaw is a product of Team Alpha Male, and those guys have been on an absolute tear over the past few months. A win over Assuncao would certainly boost him up in a division looking for new blood.

Stay tuned to ProMMAnow.com for more UFC Fight Night 29 news and coverage, and be sure to join us on Wednesday night for the live play-by-play.

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