Demian Maia was recently on the losing end of a unanimous decision against Belal Muhammad at UFC 263 and although he’d originally stated that he might be retiring from MMA after the fight, he made no such announcement after the scorecards were revealed. It’s entirely possible that he may still retire from the sport in the days to come, or look for one final farewell fight before calling it a day on his career. But now, Demian Maia has confirmed that he won’t be retiring from combat sports altogether and he will instead switch back to his first love, BJJ, according to an interview that he conducted with TATAME just prior to the fight:
“I believe this Saturday fight could be my last in MMA. It will depend a lot on my performance for me to want to continue, and obviously, if they want, I want to do one last fight, a farewell fight, but Saturday’s fight may be the last of my career, yes”
“This possibility of ending my career has been with me already since 2020. I’ll do this last fight with the UFC contract, and eventually, a farewell fight. I’ve been in the UFC for 14 years, so closing my contract, which will happen this Saturday, so I think it makes more sense, ending my contract with the UFC, to also end my MMA career. Eventually, I want to do a Jiu-Jitsu superfight at Spyder Korea, but in MMA, ending my contract with the UFC and having no interest from either party, I believe that, in fact, it will be the end.”
“I have an opponent in mind, but I’ll only comment on this after Saturday’s fight, because I can’t lose focus on what I have to do on Saturday, which is a tough test. Any UFC Top 15 is a very tough guy, so let me do my job, everything works out, and then I’ll tell you what I want.”
Demian Maia was also asked during the interview about which BJJ organisations in particular he would like to compete for and it seems as though he doesn’t have much intention of competing in the big tournaments like ADCC or IBJJF world championships. Of course, Maia is approaching his mid-forties so it’s understandable that he might prefer singular superfights instead of several matches at a large tournament:
“I know all these events, the BJJ Stars and the BJJBET, I know all the organizers. Fepa Lopes is a friend of many years. The first time I fought in a professional Jiu-Jitsu event was the Black Belt 1 Challenge, which was the first event that Fepa did in my professional life and I was able to fight.”
“There’s a lot of cool things happening in Brazil in relation to Jiu-Jitsu and I’ve had invitations from all these organizations, both in Brazil and abroad. But when you’re inside an event, and when it’s the biggest fight event in the world, it’s very difficult to focus and change your training, because when you’re going to compete in Jiu-Jitsu, it’s another type of training and preparation. And I don’t have this ‘luxury’ of separating time, because the UFC can mark a much more important fight for me, and I would have to change everything again. I take very seriously the way I’m going in, how my performance is going to be, so I don’t come in just for the money and to enjoy it, I want to go in being well trained and ready for that specifically. But, for sure, Jiu-Jitsu fans can expect me to compete in BJJ in the near future.”
He was also asked about what he would take from his illustrious MMA career and Maia had some great insights. As a 5th degree BJJ black belt with an MMA career spanning almost two decades, Demian Maia really is in a unique position in combat sports as very few people on the planet have that much competitive experience. As he answered, he would be able to take this wealth of experience into his coaching career and impart a lot of wisdom to the next generation of grapplers and MMA fighters alike:
“First of all, I take a lot of experiences and learning, which in some way, I want to pass on to people, whether it’s my students at the academy, through a book, through lectures. I also have very good memories and, mainly, I’m happy for having kept my principles in times when a lot of people said: you have several straight victories and they don’t give you a title shot, you have to be like that, you have to be that way. I didn’t get on that wave and stayed true to the principles I believe in, this is very important to me. If I looked back and noticed that I sold myself by a means, I wouldn’t look at myself as a man as I look at myself today. I’m proud of everything I’ve been through, everything I’ve lived through, and it was very good. It still is.”
