Classy Demian Maia has – of course – a classy response to UFC 209's welterweight title fight

When UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley and Stephen Thompson fought to a draw at UFC 205, contender Demian Maia was already aware that his long-awaited title shot would most likely need to wait.

However discrete, Maia’s hopes were very briefly reignited quite late in the race, when the champ dropped Maia’s name during a Twitter war that, not much later, led to an official confirmation of the Woodley vs. Thompson rematch.

But even in light of the discovery that he’ll once again have to wait his turn to take a stab at the UFC’s 170-pound belt, Maia did what he usually does: He kept it classy (via Twitter):

Maia’s unsurprisingly gracious comment, which apparently also contained a very polite callout, elicited an immediate response from the champ himself, who added that, as far as he’s concerned, they should have been matched up (via Twitter):

With Woodley (16-3-1 MMA, 6-2-1 UFC) and Thompson (13-1-1 MMA, 8-1-1 UFC) set to face off in UFC 209’s pay-per-view headliner on March 4 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Maia (24-6 MMA, 18-6 UFC) has some figuring out to do now.

While he had been offered a fight with ex-champ Robbie Lawler, and even given the option to wait for the championship rematch to unfold, he talked about his desire to rematch former middleweight titleholder Anderson Silva at a catchweight bout or even take up Donald Cerrone on his offer.

Currently No. 5 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA welterweight rankings, the Brazilian grappling ace comes in the heels of a six-fight streak capped off by a first-round submission of Carlos Condit at UFC on FOX 21 last August.

For more on UFC 209, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.