While it may have seemed as though Demian Maia’s MMA career was done following a unanimous decision loss to Belal Muhammad at UFC 263 last June, the Brazilian grappling ace would like another shot in the Octagon.
Although Maia completed the last fight on his UFC contract at that event, he claims he will only compete for the Las Vegas-based promotion in MMA.
“No, I’m not officially retired,” Maia said on the “Morning Kombat” show. “I want to do one more fight in the UFC, but I don’t want to fight any other event, because UFC’s my house. It’s been my house for the last 15 years. So if I get another chance I would do one more fight there.”
After the bout with Muhammad, UFC president Dana White indicated that it was probably time for Maia to bid farewell.
“I think that was his last fight,” White said after UFC 263. “It was the last fight on his deal. He’s [43 years old]. He’s been so good at getting in there, securing the takedown, getting on top of people and just strangling them or grabbing something and twisting it until you quit, and he couldn’t get it done tonight. He’s [43 years old], he’s a great guy, he’s had a great career, and yes, I would say that’s probably it.”
Since that fight, Maia has stayed active in training and has competed at grappling events. He recently submitted fellow UFC veteran Alex Oliveira at BJJ Stars 8 and is scheduled to face Benson Henderson at Polaris 20 on June 25.
“I’m pretty much focused on the other parts of my career. I still train MMA. I’m still doing some boxing and Thai-boxing with takedowns and this kind of thing, so I keep this sharp if I need to do one more fight,” Maia said. “But at the same time I’m focused a lot on sport jiu-jitsu again, because I want to compete more in this kind of rules.”
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