Demian Maia to wrap up professional MMA career
As they say, "all good things must come to an end". The 42-year-old BJJ master, Demian Maia, has announced he will be hanging up the gloves — not right now though, but after one more fight.
The Brazilian came into the UFC back in October 2007 at UFC 77 riding a 6-fight win streak. On that night, he showed a sign of things to come by locking in a rear-naked choke on Ryan Jensen 2 minutes and 40 seconds into the opening round. He started his career winning 11 before Nate Marquardt slept him 21 seconds after the fight started with a counter right that spun the Brazilian mid-air.
From that day till now the book was well written on Demian. If he takes you into the abyss on the ground; you're probably going to tap to something. But if you can keep the fight on the feet, you have a chance of sleeping him. Although 8 of his 10 losses come via decision.
At first, he was not happy with referee Osiris Maia's stoppage of his fight with Gilbert Burns. But upon thinking deeper about it, it feels he did what he thought was best. Maia has teased hanging up the gloves for a while. With him putting it out in the atmosphere, this time he means it. One more walk. One more scrap — and hopefully one more time getting his hand raised.
The loss to Burns ended a 3-fight win streak which came after a bad 3-fight losing streak to Tyron Woodley, Colby Covington, then to Kamaru Usman. It also signaled a possible changing of the guard in the division. Gilbert on the ground has a comparable game, but he has more firepower in his hands.
So who does the UFC match him with for his swan song? That's tough. You can assume safely he won't be running it back with any of the 3 he lost to last. That would, in essence, be feeding sheep to lions. Burns suggested after the victory that his UFC 112 loss to Anderson Silva gets run back. That's a decent possibility as the likelihood either fighter walks away with serious damage is microscopic. Dhiego Lima, Mickey Gall, and Randy Brown might be better choices as at his advanced age it's hard to imagine "Spider" cutting to 170 and really doubtful Maia would go to 185.
With the world situation what it is; neither Demian, the UFC or anybody knows where or when that last fight will happen. One thing is certain though. Right after that fight, he'll have one more walk to make. The walk into the UFC Hall of Fame.