Demian Maia is now on the fourth spot in the UFC history’s most submission wins. Like the other MMA fighters, Maia wants to eventually be at the top and get the number one spot in this category.
Maia, who has a record of 21-6 MMA and 15-6 UFC, has been doing really good in submissions ever since he signed up in the UFC last October 2007; he was even considered one of the great submission threats in the industry. During the last few years, he has managed to snag his first five wins in the UFC using submission. Aside from this, Maia remains to be the only fighter in this generation to make five consecutive contenders tap out of the fight.
Since this tactic has been the highlight of Maia’s MMA success over the past few years, his top opponents have learned how to deal with it effectively, which in turn, slowed down Maia’s submission victories. Since 2009, Maia has only managed to win by submission only twice, with the second one from his victory with Neil Magny at UFC 190 just his month. Maia was able to pull off a rear-naked choke during the second round.
This win over Magny meant that Maia has finally been able to snag the seventh overall submission win in UFC competition. Only a handful of fighters like Frank Mir, Royce Gracie, and Nate Diaz have been able to achieve more than this inside the octagon. Both Mir and Diaz were able to get eight overall submissions wins in the UFC, while Gracie was able to get eleven.
Maia admitted that he wants to do better and get ahead of those fighters who are doing better than him, especially Gracie. Royce has been able to get a hold of the top spot on the most number of victory via submissions since 1994.
“That’s a good goal to chase. Now that’s one of my goals,” Maia admitted in a recent interview with MMAjunkie.
Most fighters slow down and prepare for retirement towards the end of their 30’s, but not Maia. Demian is now 37 years old and it looks like he is not planning to stop fighting anytime soon. Even the way he fights inside the octagon is somehow still showing the same intensity as how he did when he was way younger. This former middleweight title challenger is now running on a three-fight winning streak, and out of eight bouts he had recently, he was able to win six of them.
When asked about how he was able to get victories at his age, he admitted that he actually doesn’t know how this events happened.
“I feel in my prime. It’s something that’s very strange. A lot of people this age start to slow down, but every fight I feel better. I’ve never been so ready for a fight,” Maia admitted.
During his entire career, Maia was able to fight the brightest and fiercest athletes in the industry. The records show that he was able to face the UFC’s middleweight and welterweight fighters for almost nine years. Because of this, Maia has been considered one of the best grappling fighters in the sport.
Even with his success in the industry, Maia admits that he has an ultimate goal of being a UFC champion.
“When it’s a submission in a fight or a knockout, it always puts you in a different spot. People see you from different eyes. I need to train like I did for this fight and I will submit more guys,” he said.