Demian Maia swings his right leg over the back of his adversary's neck. He juts the left leg over, locking his right foot in the crook of his left knee.

He pulls on his foe's head. He squeezes. The opponent quits.  

It's a common image inside the UFC Octagon. That situation--or a close variation--played out nine times in Maia's UFC career thus far, a run spanning 25 fights and 10 years. A decade of dominance.

Saturday, July 29, at UFC 214, Maia competes in his 26th bout inside the Octagon. He takes on UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, a powerhouse wrestler with one hell of a mean right hand.

But there's not a style Maia hasn't conquered. He's submitted Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belts, Division-I All-American wrestlers, and vicious strikers. You name the style, Maia's forced it to tap out.  


The 39-year-old Brazilian is a force on the mats unlike anything we've seen inside the eight-walled battle chamber, leaving 19 of the world's baddest dudes bewildered and stunned. He's forced them to say "that's enough" at an uncommon clip, making him one of the scariest fighters on earth.

His success is rooted in one skill--grappling. A one-trick pony in a multi-faceted game, Maia is an oddity, a relic of days past.

Can one man's grappling be that good? Is Maia that special?

We reached out to five of Maia's past opponents in search of answers. The common threads became apparent.

Yes, he is that good. And he's not.

That is why he wins.

Part I: Preparation

Facing a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt of Maia's caliber is a daunting task, something that hangs like a thunderhead over each and every training session.

To prepare for Maia is almost impossible. Fighters are done before they've weighed in.

That's a problem--but it's one some foes have solved. Others weren't so lucky.


Jake Shields (decision victory over Maia at UFC Fight Night 29: Maia vs. Shields, October 2013): I spent a little bit of time working on getting out of that body triangle, but I spent a lot more time doing scrambles before he got it in. I knew once he got it in, it's hard to get out, so it was all about preventative measures.

Every time he got my back, I would go into some kind of roll or stand up. Never turn back and stay there. If Maia would spin to the back, the plan was to get out instantly. I think at one point he actually almost got my back, but I was able to spin out and ended up on top--which was a thing I drilled. I don't think it went exactly how I drilled, I really just like scrambled and rolled and it worked. *laughs*

Dan Miller (decision loss to Maia at UFC 109 in February 2010): Going in, with our old coach and stuff like that, it was like, 'You can't go to the mat with him! Don't go to the mat with him!' So we worked a lot on getting back up, but in the fight, you know what? I didn't feel like it was--I remember he started to pass my guard at one point, and I kind of held him off and was able to strike a little bit. I don't know.

He didn't feel like it is when you watch him. Like, holy shit, man, I can't believe he did what he did to Carlos Condit. You know? That was just amazing. That performance to me was amazing, because Carlos Condit is an animal. He's a fu*kin' beast.

Jon Fitch (decision loss to Maia at UFC 156 in February 2013): I felt comfortable with it [Maia's grappling]. Part of the advantage I had in the fight is that I trained with Checkmat, those Checkmat guys. So I'd seen some of his style, that Checkmat style and the stuff they do. So I knew what he was doing and where he was going as he was doing it. I just didn't have the strength or the energy to fight it. I was able to defend all the submissions and I saw everything coming. I saw where he was going. I just didn't have the oomph to put any effort into stopping it.

I think being exposed to that Leo Vieira Checkmat style allowed me to kind of see what he was doing. So I wasn't surprised. I think he surprises a lot of people.

Nate Quarry (first-round submission loss to Maia at UFC 91 in November 2008): When you fight somebody who is that good, you really can't prepare for it. Because who are you going to bring in that's an equal to Demian Maia? And how are you going to get up to his speed in a three- or four-month training camp? No. He's been doing this for 20 or 30 years.

Before I made it to the UFC, I won quite a few fights by submission. The triangle was kind of my go-to move from the bottom. I won with a shoulder lock against a giant one time right there in the Roseland [Theater, in Portland, Oregon]. But once I made it into the UFC, my takedowns just weren't that good, because I didn't wrestle as a kid.

And then working with Team Quest, everybody thinks, 'Oh yeah, you're Team Quest, you must be a great wrestler.' No. No. We didn't have any wrestling classes, any wrestling practices. We just had guys that were world champion wrestlers. So I would try to shoot a takedown on [Randy] Couture, [Matt] Lindland, [Dan] Henderson, Chael [Sonnen], and they would just stuff me and beat the hell out of me. So there was no way for me to actually work and build up that skill during those rounds with these guys.

Part 2: The Fight

No fighter plans to lose. Against an opponent like Maia, the solution seems simple: Don't get taken down. Don't engage him in the grappling world. Just. Don't.

Time and again, though, Maia makes it happen. He forces the fight to the ground, and from there, it's bad news almost every time.

What sets Maia apart here is nothing flashy or otherworldly. To his opponents, that is precisely why his success is so amazing.


Chael Sonnen (first-round submission loss to Maia at UFC 95 in February 2009): He does the same thing every time. It's the same damn escape he does to absolutely everybody. He gets to half guard, bends your leg one way and reaches to your hip with the free hand and then swings around on top. We all know it's coming, but we can't stop it because he does it so incredibly well.


(Credit: Jason Silva-USA TODAY Sports) 

Miller:

He hit me with a single leg coming up. I f*cking worked on that--I knew about that fight for like 16 weeks, four months. It was too long--too much preparing, too much training. It was too much where by the end of the training camp I was like, 'When is this fight going to get here?' But I worked on that [defense] 100, maybe 1,000 times. And he still hit me with it. I saw it coming too! He just sat up, and I knew it was coming, but I don't know. *laughs* He was just very good at that. I knew it was happening. I was prepared for it, and it didn't matter.

Quarry: He's asking me, 'What's two plus two?' And I say four. Then he's like 'Oh, sorry, I switched it to two times two.' Wait, that's still four. So he says, 'No, it was two divided by two.' That's one. So he's changing the equations so quickly and I'm trying to answer them but now he's throwing in letters and doing algebra and geometry and I'm still back here doing pluses and minuses and he's off getting his graduation cap.

The depth of his game, he really is 'still waters run deep.' Because he's not overly flashy. He's had some great takedowns. When he took down Chael up against the cage, that was beautiful--landed right into a mounted triangle, which was incredible.

I actually called him out after he beat Ed Herman. I called up Joe Silva and I said, 'I want Demian Maia. I think I can overcome him. He won't be able to take me down, I'm going to end up in his guard, and I'm going to hammer him with elbows.'

But I wasn't able to avoid the takedown. He's not necessarily sneaky, but he's so aggressive with that forward pressure and throwing you off balance. I remember thinking, 'He's a southpaw, I need to keep my leg to the outside, keep my leg to the outside…' And as I'm thinking about that, he hit me with a shot and rushed in for the takedown. And I'm like, 'Goddammit, this is exactly where I don't want to be.'

Shields: It's a combination of things [that makes him special]. One, he's really strong. He's also really persistent. When he goes for things, he just keeps going for them. He keeps hunting stuff down until he gets it. And obviously he's really technical as well. It's just that combination--he's strong, persistent, and technical, and a lot of guys in MMA don't know how to deal with it.

I think he's really gone back to just focusing on jiu-jitsu. For a minute, he was kind of trying to be a striker. Then he decided to just stick with basic jiu-jitsu. Keep it simple. Get the takedown, straight into the submission.

Fitch: Persistence. If you're close enough to hit somebody, you're close enough to get taken down. That rule will never change. So if Woodley is putting hands on him, he's putting himself in a position to get taken down. Also, if Demian is able to use the cage--he's pretty good at putting people into the cage--then he gets takedowns and simple trips and sweeps. He'll even climb your back from the cage. I don't think he's going to hit a double leg and take Tyron Woodley down. I think he'll get it to a clinch situation, put him in the fence, tie him up, and get him to the ground eventually.

I call it 'lazy technique.' Why put in the effort if you can easily do the same thing? Part of it is that Checkmat style. A lot of guys don't know what it is and they don't pay attention to it.

Quarry: You ask any fighter, 'Are you worried about what your opponent's going to do?' and they'll say the same thing. 'Nope. I'm not worried about him. He needs to worry about me. I'm just focusing on my game. If I have to worry about what he's going to do, I'll defeat myself.'

So every fighter tells themselves that before every fight, but when it comes to Demian Maia, it's so clear what he's going to do that you can't help but think of anything else, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

If you're riding a bicycle and you see a pothole in the road, you think, 'OK, here comes that pothole. Gotta make sure I don't hit that pothole.' And you're staring at the pothole, zeroed in on the pothole. Well instead of looking where you want to go, you're staring where you don't want to go, and sure enough, you run right into that pothole.

So we're all thinking, 'Man, jiu-jitsu, that's his only game. I just can't let him take me down.' That's what we're focusing on. And it just becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. 'He's not going to get me, he's not going to get me.' And you're focused on that instead of just thinking, 'I'm going to hit him. I'm just going to work my game. I'm going to make this stuff happen.' You become too overwhelmed thinking of what he's going to do.

Shields:  I thought it would be a tough, grinding fight that wasn't going to be easy, because he's a far different fighter than most guys. Watching him, he's obviously very good at what he does, and it was what I expected. He's got good takedowns, good body locks, really hard to get him off you if he's on top.

I think he's just a level above in the grappling. It's not a simple problem. It's not one thing they can just solve, you know? He gets in there, he has that really strong body lock that gets them down. His game is really simple, but it works. Simple pass, straight to mount or back, straight to the finish. It's nothing fancy, but it's just something he does really, really well.

Part 3: The Aftermath

For some, the end comes swiftly, almost mercifully. Maia is perhaps the kindest sir in all of MMA, a true "martial artist" by definition.

He'll submit you, then he'll give you a kiss on the cheek (or on the lips...Nate Quarry). He might even invite you to a seminar (...Neil Magny).

Nineteen times inside the Octagon, Maia emerged victorious. Even those who have beaten him, like Shields, can attest: Doing so will not be easy. You will struggle. You will rely on the totality of your skills.

And even then, Bruce Buffer might say the word "split" while announcing the final scores.


Shields: It's great [to have a win over him] but I'd definitely feel better if I had submitted him or done it in a more dominant fashion. It's still great to beat Maia and better him on the ground, but in my mind I would've liked to have done it in even better fashion. Maybe someday we can rematch--either in a fight or a grappling match would be cool. Submission Underground would be pretty cool. *laughs*

Miller: That's the thing--for a while, I think he wanted to become a more complete fighter. I think we all go through that. I was a wrestler/grappler, and I got to the UFC and even won my first whatever amount of fights in the UFC--that's what I did, and I did really well. Then it was like, 'I want to be more complete.' I want to be able to strike and do this and that. So I changed my focus and training. I maybe lost a little in the grappling area. I kind of stopped training that--not fully--but not as much and as hard at it.

I watch the sport, I've been through it, I've seen Jim go through it, and I think Demian realized, 'This is what I'm good at. If I want to be world champion, it's not going to be by striking. I'm not going to go in and knock these guys out. I'm going to go in and submit them.' I think he's really concentrating on that aspect of his game again, like, 'Screw it. I don't care if people think I'm boring. I'm going to go in, and this is what I'm going to do.' And he's doing it fantastically. He goes in, and these guys, they don't have a chance on the mat. Zero. It's amazing to have that type of control.


(Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports) 

Quarry: What really amazed me and what I did not comprehend about jiu-jitsu in MMA...it was just so phenomenal. It was like we were doing a grappling match.

He'd be approaching a position and I'd be like, 'Cool. I'm going to shut that down so he can't continue this attack. I'll just stall right here.' Then all of a sudden, no. We're doing MMA. And he would hit me with a shot and I remember thinking, 'How the hell is he generating so much force with these punches? This is unbelievable.'

So he'd hit me with something and I'd remember, 'Shit! This is MMA.' Scramble scramble scramble. Then he would go right back to jiu-jitsu. He was like, 'No. We're doing jiu-jitsu, and now I'm going to just ride you and I'm going to force you to do this.' OK, cool. I can stall here. Wham! Oh my god. How did he generate that much force? Scramble scramble scramble.

Then he would go right back to jiu-jitsu. So it was like at any point when I thought we were doing jiu-jitsu, he would switch to MMA. And then I'd be like, 'Oh my god, I gotta cover.' And then he'd switch back to jiu-jitsu and just be a blanket on top of me. It was just really incredible to feel that energy.

I really consider it such an honor to have fought him--if you can call it that because it went by so quickly--but he was just such an incredible competitor. Then the first words he said to me after the fight were 'I'm sorry.' He hugged me, he said, 'I'm sorry,' then he kissed me on the cheek. And I went to kiss him back on his cheek and as I did that, he turned his head and we ended up kissing on the lips. And it's on camera in front of millions of people.

Fitch: Strength comes from positioning, and I think his superior positioning is what gives him that illusion of such strength. When I fought him, I was really sick, so I didn't have any energy or strength myself to kind of fight him, but his positioning is good. He knows where to go, where to put you in a position where he knows what you're doing next. He's a hybrid type of fighter with his jiu-jitsu because his jiu-jitsu is more suited for MMA than a lot of other people's jiu-jitsu.

Sonnen: I can tell you after studying Maia, for my fight and every one of his fights since, he's good at the in-between. You don't see very many guys who are like this. Fighting starts on the feet and most of the time it goes to the ground. Maia pulls himself to the ground with you on top and then looks for that same half guard sweep every single time and takes the guy's back. There's never been a fighter who gets their takedown by taking themselves down aside from Demian Maia.

He has a good single leg, and we saw it in the [Jon] Fitch match, but he pulls you on top of him and looks for the reversal. It's an in-between type wrestling you don't see much. Ben Askren did it in amateur wrestling, but no one in MMA has ever done it where he puts himself in a bad spot to get where he wants to go.

Maia isn't overly fast, overly strong or big, and when I fought him it was at 185, so he was small for the weight class, but the in-between stuff he does is very difficult to stop. He's working these small things to gain position and set up attacks that are very, very uncommon.

Part 4: Comparing Maia

Having felt the strength and expertise of Maia, his opponents are uniquely equipped to draw comparisons.

Shields and Fitch, for instance, tout a couple lauded grappling-centric common opponents in Georges St-Pierre and Rousimar Palhares.

Miller, meanwhile, competes in grappling tournaments, having faced elite black belts in that realm.

They all agree: Maia is special.


Shields: For straight jiu-jitsu, Maia is probably the best guy I've faced in MMA. I obviously lost the Palhares fight, but I thought I was handling him pretty easily until--no excuses--but I got gouged in my eyes and couldn't concentrate, but I feel like I wasn't having much trouble with him.

Maia's right there. GSP has an underrated grappling game as well, but we didn't spend much time on the ground. He [GSP's] got great strength, great base, great balance. He's very hard to sweep. He's got great intuition and always knows when you're trying to sweep him. He's quick and knows where to go. He just naturally knows how to shift his weight.

Fitch: From a technical standpoint, he was smoother and more technical than any other fighter, grappling-wise, that I've faced. Jake Shields is very good, very technical, but he's got a lot of strength behind some of his positioning, whereas Maia isn't like that.

A lot of these other guys are explosive or athletic. Maia is just persistent and constant. It's heavy pressure, but it doesn't feel like somebody's trying to muscle you around.

Miller: [Jeff] Monson is obviously beastly strong. But, man, I rely a lot on attacking, just going after it and attacking. I think it puts some of these guys, they have to defend more, so they're not attacking, they're not moving forward as much. I think it slows them down a little bit. With Monson, I'd pull guard, and I didn't feel threatened at all on my back.

I think a lot of these guys look at him, and none of these guys are attacking him and making him think. They're just defending. And when you're that good, you're already two steps ahead of a guy. They're not putting him in any position where he feels threatened. He'll attack, and he knows what they're going to defend with, so he'll move to the next thing and the next thing. If you don't throw a wrench in his game, you're never going to stop him.

Quarry: It was funny, everybody thinks I tapped to the rear-naked choke. That's not really the case. He was choking me. He had his forearm across my windpipe if I remember correctly, but he had the figure-four body lock on me.

And as he was pulling on my head, pulling across my throat to sink in the choke, I literally felt like he was ripping my abdominals open. Because he was extending backward. He pushed his hips down and away and he sunk the choke up and away. So my lower body's going one direction and my upper body's going in the other direction. It felt like he was literally pulling me apart. I tapped to the brutal, brutal abdominal pain. I was pretty messed up for a few days after that. I've never felt anything like that.

Part 5: Predicting Woodley vs. Maia

For Maia, it all comes down to Saturday night. He's accomplished damn near everything inside the realm of combat, but that UFC gold eludes him. 

He faced Anderson Silva for the middleweight title at UFC 112, eventually losing a unanimous decision. Now, seven years later, Maia's riding a seven-fight win streak, and he's at the top of the welterweight mountain. Woodley remains. 

If he pulls it off, he will notch his 20th UFC victory, and it will represent a special one. Coincidentally, the only people who have defeated Woodley inside the cage--Nate Marquardt, Rory MacDonald, and Jake Shields--have also defeated Maia. 

On paper, the powerful, younger, faster Woodley has the advantage. His takedown defense is phenomenal, and if Maia can't take him down...then what? According to our panel, though, that's a massive "if." Maia is alive in this fight. Don't be surprised if the words "and new" ring out in Anaheim late Saturday evening. 


Shields: It's a really tough one to pick, because they both have advantages. Maia clearly has a jiu-jitsu advantage, but Woodley has those big power punches. Will he be able to get in or not? It's hard to say. I think Maia's built a little more where he won't gas, but it's so much energy trying to take someone down who is that strong. There are so many factors. It's almost like a 50-50 fight.

I think if Maia stays on him, just keeps shooting and sticking him to the cage, he might be able to take him down with a body lock or a single off the cage. I know Woodley's a much better wrestler, but sometimes you add the cage in and it's a little different. Plus I know Maia's been working a lot of wrestling his last couple camps.


Miller: I've bet against Tyron Woodley so many times, and I'm always wrong. *laughs* But I don't know, man. I don't know. Demian Maia--I just think it's his time. I think it's his time. I think he does take Woodley down eventually, and on the mat, he's just been ridiculous. I don't think Tyron's got much there for him.

Quarry: I hate to give predictions because I'm usually so wrong I can't separate my emotion from the game itself. I lean toward a decision for Woodley, and I think it's going to be a boring fight. Woodley's going to be using a one- and two-punch combo, in and out, moving, bicycling around the cage so much that Demian's going to have a hard time really shutting him down and locking him into a position he can't escape. Then look for Woodley to shoot a takedown with maybe 10 seconds left, at the bell, so he can win the round. Then do that round after round.

That said, I respect Maia so much. If he can get Woodley down, that would most likely be it. He would just have to worry about Woodley exploding from whatever position. If he's on his back, exploding to a turtle position then exploding up and away. Maia's so much slower. He's a grinder. I gotta give it to Woodley by a boring decision. Hopefully Maia won't see this and be like, 'I'm going to go choke that bitch again.'

Fitch: That's where Tyron Woodley has an advantage because he does have that explosiveness. But I don't know if he has the knowledge. You can be explosive and explode the wrong direction against someone like Maia and it's over. He's got one of the tools, and that's the explosiveness. But is he going to have the knowledge to know which way to explode? And then his cardio--is his cardio going to be able to do it for five rounds?

It's similar to a Jake Shields game plan because you have to be explosive and fast and work hard all the way through the escape. If you stop halfway or give half effort or hesitate, you're just going to get dominated and put in an even worse position.

Sonnen: Anyone who tells you Demian Maia can't win this fight doesn't know what they are talking about and isn't a fight fan.