Demian Maia is perhaps the biggest ambassador of the jiu-jitsu community in the Octagon. Just last week marked the 10 years since he made his professional debut in the UFC Octagon against Ryan Jensen.
This was Maia’s 7th professional mixed martial arts fight. He had won the ADCC that same year. He’d won gold in the 88 kg division.
In the years prior to his debut he’d been collecting jiu-jitsu accolades including winning Worlds at purple belt and becoming Brazilian World Champ several times over.
Demian Maia also got to articulate his feelings on sub only vs points matches recently:
“I like both(sub only and points). I think there is a space for both. They talk about sub only for many years now. It’s not a new thing. In Brazil in the 90s there ware some championships that were like that. Half an hour, an hour. Renzo Gracie fought like that. ”
Maia continued: ” It’s hard to make this kind of thing, to plan for this but it’s all about experiencing. You have to try this different things. ”On rules: ” The main thing about jiu-jitsu is they need to simplify the rules. Like IBJJF jiu-jitsu. For me, ADCC rules are the best. It’s easy to understand. You’re on bottom you flip the guy over on top that’s 2 points can be a sweep can be a flip over. That’s the principle .”
Born in 1977 – he was 30 at the time of his UFC debut. Interestingly, Maia, who refuses to play the PR game had picked up bjj around the same time he started studying journalism at the Sao Paolo University.
Maia had earned the rank of a bjj black belt in staggering 4 years and 7 months (source: bjjheroes) under Fabio Gurgel.
In the octagon Maia’s bjj morphed and flourished. Over his 10 year tenure he had as many losses with most of them being attributed to proven fighters such as Anderson Silva, Chris Weirdman, Jake Shields, Rory MacDonald and Tyron Woodley.
Interestingly all of the above mentioned came by way of decision. Maia was last knocked out against Nate Marquardt way back in 2009.
Even tho Maia credits excellent wrestling camps for his success in the octagon he’s still an adamant representative of bjj. And he’s close to breaking some vital records to boot:
“There are two records that I would like to beat,” Maia said. “One, to have the most wins in the UFC. I know I am second behind (Michael) Bisping right now along with one or two other people. And it is also my goal today to get a belt. While I’m fighting, I will be trying to get to the top, and if it doesn’t work out, I’ll leave MMA.”
Still Maia has a clear idea – when asked what he would’ve done differently if he got to rematch Woodley today he said:
