Maia Discusses Herman Bout at UFC 83
Demian Maia (Pictures) debuted in the UFC in October 2007 with an impressive first-round submission of Ryan Jensen (Pictures). The Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt returns to the Octagon April 19 in Canada for a middleweight bout against Ed Herman (Pictures).
Sherdog.com spoke with Maia about that match and the future of the 185-pound weight class.
Sherdog.com: When the fight against Ed Herman (Pictures) started as a rumor on the Internet, the fans generally only talked about you finishing him. How do you see this situation?
Demian Maia: Well, I don't follow forums and this Internet stuff. But I think Herman is a good fighter. He's not weak or something like that. He's a dangerous fighter and he developed a lot from his first fight to his last one. If I'm not wrong, I think the North American fans don't like Herman at all. I'm not sure. So perhaps due to this fact, they picked me to beat him. If we're talking about Herman, he's good. Taller than me, with a good wrestling base and very tough to be taken down.
Sherdog.com: Now that you know about the discussion, is this good for you or not?
Maia: For me it doesn't influence. When I step in the Octagon is when I'll see what will happen. But for Herman this can influence him in two distinct aspects. I mean he can use it to train more and more, to show that he can win. Or, on the other hand, he could reach the Octagon mentally weak. I believe more in the first option. Anyway, in the moment of the fight, what people have said before won't prevail. I already watched several MMA fights where the 100-percent favorite was schooled.
Sherdog.com: You've known about this fight since 2007. Have you been training since then?
Maia: We were supposed to fight in March, so I knew about him as my opponent at the end of last year. I am always training, but when a fight is confirmed I start to make my routine. I'd like to make a super training system of boxing, wrestling, BJJ, MMA sparring and conditioning everyday, but I can't make it happen. So I try to focus each piece of my training on what I will prioritize. My biggest priority is BJJ, but in a few stages of this preparation I increase the other aspects. I developed a system where I have everything settled until fight week, so I don't [lack training that] I need to compete in MMA. Just to mention an example, I had a seminar in Peru last month. So my routine changed, however I took the opportunity of traveling to train boxing with Daniel Aspe, an outstanding mixed martial artist who has a huge background in boxing.
Sherdog.com: Is boxing what you choose to fill out your game?
Maia: Not at all. I trained kung fu when I was a kid, so when I started in MMA I realized my high kicks were very good. I was surprised with my performance in Super Challenge in 2006 when I high kicked, and I kept training kicks because I liked them and I felt very good standing up with knees also. But my weakness was boxing. I had trouble in the half distance. In the long and short ones I was good, but between wasn't working. Now I think I improved this. I have the British fighter James Zikic (Pictures) supporting me here in Brazil. He is a pro boxer. I have my boxing coach, Andre Lopes, too, but Zikic is sparring with me and I feel a good evolution in this area. But this was in training. I can't say I'll knock Herman out [laughs].
Sherdog.com: You talked about Super Challenge, and in that competition you dominated two muay Thai experts in Vitelmo Kubis Bandeira and Gustavo Machado (Pictures). Landing kicks, closing the distance and handling them on the ground.
Maia: I believe I have two factors that helped me in this game. The combination of my standup experience when I was a kid conditioned me to this, plus my BJJ focused on self-defense, submissions, MMA and not on points. And I guess I was born to fight more MMA than BJJ. I know I need to develop a lot in MMA, but I feel very good when I'm fighting because we can use everything, and in BJJ we're a little limited. These are two different sports, you know. Well, I wished to be an MMA fighter first before BJJ. Since the sport wasn't mainstream I wanted to do it, so I guess naturally I got conditioned since I was a young martial artist.
Sherdog.com: You debuted in UFC 77 last year with a rear-naked choke submission over Ryan Jensen (Pictures). Can you tell us about the debut?
Maia: To answer this one I need to make a retrospective of my career when I started MMA back in 2001 in Venezuela. I was calm because I knew my opponent didn't have experience in MMA, only in wrestling. My second one was different because I was going to fight an unknown with experience in MMA in Finland. Super Challenge was OK because I was a dark horse. The tournament had Alexandre Ferreira, Gustavo Machado (Pictures), Leonardo Lucio Nascimento -- the favoritism was with them. In the Gracie FC I fought against Ryan Stout (Pictures). This was a bit tense. This was my American soil debut, and I wanted to perform very well. The week of the UFC was nervous. This was a dream come true; everything I wanted was in front of me. But when the Octagon locked, this disappeared. I believe my next fight will follow this same road, but all will work.
Sherdog.com: Back to Herman. What analysis do you give about his game inside the Octagon?
Maia: He likes to land elbows. I don't know about the technique of them, but they worked very well against Scott Smith. The elbows are very dangerous because sometimes you're better in a fight, eat one, the bleeding starts and the fight can be stopped. I watched him work good uchi-matas and the ground and pound using elbows.
Sherdog.com: How do you see this fight as a virtual ranking of the UFC middleweight contenders?
Maia: I don't know about that for a while. This is what I want, but I need to see the fights like steps in a stairway. Herman is a known guy in North America, was a participant on TUF. A victory over him will throw me tougher challenges. And if everything works and I win these four fights on my contract, I'll wait for a contender spot. This is what I learned from my BJJ tournaments, to take one fight at a time. If you're in the quarterfinals, thinking about the semifinals can get you upset. This already happened to me, and I took this lesson!
Sherdog.com: Are the Brazilians Ricardo Almeida (Pictures), Thales Leites (Pictures), Rousimar Palhares and you the future difficult matchups for the champion Anderson Silva?
Maia: I think so. The games of these four fighters mentioned aren't easy deals, with refined ground games and dangerous submissions. Leites and Palhares don't have the BJJ accomplishments, but they're very good fighters. I fought Leites in BJJ and he's tough, while Palhares mopped renowned black belts in the Brazilian ADCC Trials. I think Almeida is the fighter who has the better combination of good standup with accurate clinch and the unquestionable submission game. I'm walking this way, too, I guess. But Silva is a step ahead, mainly for the strikers in the UFC. I don't see anyone in any UFC weight class with 50 percent of the technical level Silva has. Perhaps Georges St. Pierre (Pictures) at welterweight is nearly identical, but I can't compare these two.
Sherdog.com: And the foreign fighters?
Maia: I think Dan Henderson (Pictures) would fight well in a second opportunity. Everything would depend on his will. He's going to be 38 years old this year, and I don't know if he has the will in his mind to keep training hard and focus after the conquests he's reached. I believe MMA can be fought until 44 years old because this is not like running, where the physical condition comes first. You can use your experience and your technique in MMA. I respect him and know he's tough. Yushin Okami (Pictures) is a fighter who doesn't fight to please the crowd, but he's tough to beat. He's tall and strong for this weight class. He seems a light heavyweight contestant with a very strategic game. Nathan Marquardt (Pictures), Jason MacDonald (Pictures) -- I think Nate Quarry will come strong also. There are a lot. I can't remember them all, but there are several newcomers too.
