Why Demian Maia will never win a UFC championship (and it’s not what you think)

This video makes it pretty clear that Demian Maia will never be UFC champion. Don’t get me wrong, I love him as a fighter, his jiu-jitsu is unmatched (I have a big soft spot for BJJ fighters), and I would like nothing more than to see him destroy Dan Miller at Saturday’s UFC 109. I think it would be great if Maia beat Miller up with strikes and knocked him out just to prove that his stand-up has improved since his embarrassing 21-second knockout loss to Nate Marquardt. A more likely scenario is Maia takes Miller down and submits him, easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Back to him never becoming champ. It’s got little to do with his weak striking game or his lack of a monster physique and everything to do with his attitude. He’s a low key, soft-spoken guy – there’s a surprising amount of very boring footage of very boring stretching exercises in the video, so much so that I almost expected Richard Simmons to show up. And he makes it very clear he wants to beat people with jiu-jitsu to prove the art’s effectiveness and – this is the important part – he wants to do it without hurting his opponent.

Now, I know he doesn’t mean that literally. He means he wants to cause them as little pain as possible. He’s not going to grind out a win by beating on somebody or lock on a submission and try to rip an arm off like Shinya Aoki. He’s not a destroyer. But I’m sorry, you can’t be a UFC champion if you’re holding back in some way. It’s not kill or be killed (as far too many fighters hyperbolize), but it is a fight to the finish. That means getting mean and nasty and aggressive, and I just don’t think Maia has that in him. You might argue that Georges St. Piere isn’t mean and nasty and you’re right, he isn’t, out of the cage. But inside the cage he is completely focused on punishing his opponent, on hurting his opponent, on destroying his opponent, on getting the job done so he can make nice afterward. That’s how you become a champion. I hope Maia proves me wrong someday.

BTW, it’s interesting to see Maia training out of The Arena in San Diego alongside jiu-jitsu world champion and MMA fighter Xande Ribeiro (whom you can see at the beginning of the video). I’d have thought Maia would’ve gone to Black House where he could work on his grappling and his stand-up with the Nogueiras. Maybe it’s because fellow middleweight and current champ Anderson Silva would also be there and didn’t want the distraction of training alongside a potential future opponent. Just speculating.