Demian Maia has just joined a very exclusive club that includes some of the greatest grapplers on the planet as he was recently awarded the 5th degree on his BJJ black belt. The promotions received after black belt are all ceremonial and denote time spent at the rank, with Maia having received his black belt almost two decades ago from a man who can now count himself among a tiny handful of Coral belts in the sport, Fabio Gurgel.
Since then, Demian Maia has gone on to do some incredible things with his BJJ talents, most notably earning a silver medal at ADCC 2005 before doing one better and walking away as an ADCC World Champion in 2007. He’s perhaps best known for his illustrious UFC career that has seen him step into the cage an incredible thirty-two times and challenge for a World title on two different occasions at both Middleweight and Welterweight. While he’s spent a little over a year away from the sport lately after suffering a knockout loss to Gilbert Burns, he now has a fight booked against Belal Muhammad at UFC 263 on June 12th.
All throughout his incredible MMA and BJJ career, Demian Maia has been able to train with some of the greatest grapplers to have ever lived and continues to give credit to those who have helped him succeed. He remains one of the best examples of what Jiu-Jitsu is able to achieve in the UFC and will no doubt be fondly remembered years after he hangs up his gloves and dedicates his time to teaching instead. Maia made the announcement of his recent promotion to 5th degree black belt on his official Instagram account:
