Born
Brazilian mixed martial artist, Demian Maia Baptista, currently fights for the UFC and is a member of the Badboy team.
Demian was born on November 6, 1997. He already trained in the judo since he was a young child. He has much training that he used to attend. He even took up Kung Fu and Karate when he was still teenager and then when he got nineteen years old he already was practicing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
It took just slightly over four and a half years for Maia to achieve his black belt in Jiu Jitsu under eight-time Brazilian Jiu Jitsu World Champion, Fabio Gurgel.
Maia is now known for his mastery in the art and is ranked the number four Middleweight fighter in the world by both Sherdog and Yahoo! Sports. He is well versed in the skill of grappling as well.
The Cage
It was on December 3, 2005 that Maia went up against Lukas Chlewicki at The Cage- Volume 4 in Finland. Maia defeated Chlewicki via armbar for just four minutes.
For just a year later Maia won the 2007 Super Challenge Championship in the under-83 kg division. He scored three consecutive victories in that same night and was the reason for winning the Championship.
Another year later he fought Ryan Stout at GFC-Evolution. Maia won that battle due to the stoppage when he got Stout a mount and so it caused him to pop out the socket of his shoulder.
UFC
Maia’s third fight which was Middleweight Jason MacDonald a.k.a. ” The Athlete” was his opponent and the setting was UFC 87: Seek and Destroy.
It was in the third round where he won the fight and was a rear naked choke. He even received $60,000 for the three consecutive submissions of winnings as a UFC fighter.
Another success of Maia’s career was the fourth back-to-back submission. Everyone noticed his great grappling ability where he fought on November 15, 2008. It was UFC91 Couture vs. Lesnar against Nate “Rock” Quarry he won over that fight in just for the first round via rear naked choke.
At UFC 95 in February, Maia’ next fight was in London, England it was quite an exciting one. His opponent that time was Chael Sonnen, and was later arrested and charged with fraud and testing positive for using the enhancing drugs.
It was then another transition of a triangle choke from Maia that he threw to Sonnen during the bout. It just took two minutes and thirty- seven seconds into the first round that lead to Sonnen’s defeat when he tapped out Maia. And so Maia earned another win and gave the fourth Submission of the Night award.
But a turnabout was around the corner. In the ring with Nate Marguardt at UFC 102 on August 29, Maia suffered a knockout only 21 seconds into the fight. It was the first loss in Maia’s career.
Dan Miller was next on the list.
It was the UFC 109: Ferociously on February 6, 2010 where Maia pulled a crowd shocker and then defeated Miller without even taking him to the ground. He was trying to convince the crowd that he can get the job well done and can get the strike over his opponent.
For UFC 112, Vitor Belfort was set to fight Anderson Silva, the UFC Middleweight Champion but had to withdraw. Maia was selected to take his place.
The fight was held at Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. It was Silva vs. Maia competition. At first it was Silva who dominated the fight with his mocking gestures and precise and quick strikes but then Maia don’t let it be just that way of the fight, and so he turned into aggression and then circling Silva and taunting him as well. In the fifth round, Silva gave nothing and then the fight was about to end that round. So much with the crowd’s chagrin Silva was declared as the winner by unanimous decision.
Another fight of Maia was on August where his opponent was Mario Miranda at UFC 118 where he also beat his opponent by a unanimous decision.
Kendall Grove was Maia’s opponent on December 4, 2010 at The Ultimate Fighter 12 Finale. With impressive all around skill, Maia won by unanimous decision.
All over Demian Maia already got 14 wins and just two losses.
There was a compilation of the hidden techniques of the art entitled “The Science of Jiu-Jitsu” it was a 6 part DVD that NATE has put together. There were several trainings of BJJ, boxing, Muay Thai, wrestling and the general conditioning.
He wears UFC gloves in the ring and speaks Portuguese, Spanish and English and says that Royce Gracie is his inspiration while Rickson Gracie is his hero. For UFC 112, Vitor Belfort was set to fight Anderson Silva, the UFC Middleweight Champion but had to withdraw.
And so it was again Maia selected to take his place.
Maia has a wife named Renata and has a degree in Journalism and holds a second degree black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
Recently it was announced that Bad Boy Demian will fight Mark Munoz at UFC 131 on June 11 in Vancouver, Canada.