When Demian Maia was announced as the replacement challenger for Anderson Silva’s Middleweight Championship following Vitor Belfort’s withdrawal from the contest, few pegged him as a serious threat to “The Spider”. After engaging Silva for five rounds in one of the most bizarre and, frankly, frustrating fights in UFC history in April, the challenger emerged as the clear crowd favorite over the champion following Silva’s insulting and well-documented behavior during the latter half of the match.
Tapology’s Steven Kelliher recently caught up with Maia to revisit the debacle that was UFC 112′s main event in depth, and while he took several positives out of his first title fight, it was clear that Silva’s personal affronts during the contest have not been forgotten, neither by Maia nor by the overwhelming number of fans who continue to support him.
Tapology: How much time did you take off before getting back into training following the loss to Anderson Silva?
Maia: This time I took like three weeks because I had two fights close together, with the Dan Miller fight and the Anderson Silva fight.
Tapology: Before we get to the other aspects of the fight, what was the game plan heading in and why do you think you were unable to execute?
Maia: To put this in a cold way, the plan was to wait for him to attack me and to put him down, but he was not committing too much. He was punching, getting out, punching, getting out. I knew he was going to do that, but I thought he was going to engage a little bit more. My mistake was that it took me too long to change the strategy. After I couldn’t get him down in the first few rounds, I think in the fourth round I changed the strategy and started to chase him a little bit more to punch, and then I could get the clinch. I think maybe if I did that at the beginning of the third round or the end of the second round, maybe I could change the fight.
Tapology: Do you think you might have hurt him with some of your strikes in the later rounds, or that he might be tired?
Maia: I felt that he started to get tired in the end of the third round. I think I landed a couple of good punches, especially at one point I felt the punch was hard on his head, but he was able to go away and escape.
Tapology: Now on to the other aspect of the fight with Silva’s trash talking and all of that: when you were in there, did you pick up on that stuff while you were fighting and did you think about it?
Maia: I knew that he does this kind of thing, but he never swore or said bad words to nobody. It wasn’t bad for me, because for me it doesn’t matter and it doesn’t change nothing for me, but for the sport it was really bad. If he was doing that in English—and people could understand—they would probably suspend him or something. They didn’t understand what he was saying.
Tapology: Now that you’ve had some time to reflect on the fight, does the manner in which he acted still bother you now as much as it did during the fight?
Maia: During the fight I was very concentrated because I knew he would do anything he can to get me to come in with crazy punches. He is a counter attacker, so I knew he would do that so he could knock me out, but I think it is too bad for the sport what he did. Now everybody looks at this sport and sees warriors of bravery and real martial arts, and what he did was like a street fighter. It didn’t work because he wanted me to chase him and knock me out, but he wasn’t able to do that.
Tapology: How did your family feel about the way he acted toward you in the cage? Were they angry with him?
Maia: Not just my family, but I think everybody—even in Brazil—say, “I used to be a fan of that guy, and now I’m your fan.” I heard that hundreds of time after the fight and I think nobody liked or respected him for that. I don’t like to say because I am a fighter, but people tell me, “this guy is an [expletive], he’s not a true fighter. He will never be like Georges St-Pierre or BJ Penn.”
Tapology: After the fight, Silva used your comment on the Countdown show about taking his leg as his reasoning for acting the way he did. Do you think that is really the reason for his behavior?
Maia: Of course it’s not. You can see on every Countdown they need to get the people excited and I think in my Countdown nobody was talking bull____ about each other. It was very respectful and I just said that because the guys ask you to add more promotion and everything. It’s normal. Everybody does that. The beautiful thing of this sport is that everybody does the promotion, but after the fight they respect each other because it’s not easy to go there and fight.
It’s obviously an excuse, but I don’t know why he behaved like that. Maybe there is too much pressure on him. For me, he’s just a fake guy, you know? He says something in front of you and then after he says another thing. He pretends to be humble, but the worst thing is when you fake that. He pretends to be a really nice guy and everything, but inside he’s really not like that.
Tapology: I’m sure you’re aware that Chael Sonnen has been saying things like that about Silva as well, that he acts differently behind the scenes and that he pretends not to be able to speak English. Do you agree with that, then?
Maia: I don’t think he can speak English well. We cannot blame that on him, but I think he is just a fake guy. To me there are true people and fake people and for me he is a fake person.
Tapology: Both physically and mentally, what have you taken away from that fight that might be positive?
Maia: Everything. I never went five rounds, so it was great for me to go five rounds in a fight. The second thing was that it was a title fight, another great experience because of all of the pressure. Another thing is that when I went into that fight, I think I was respecting him too much striking-wise, and like I said I could have gone a little bit harder before. I learned that I can stand up with the best striker in the world, but I no longer consider him the best fighter in the world because guys like BJ Penn and St-Pierre have proven much more than he did.
Tapology: Obviously your striking has been improving, but your Jiu-Jitsu is still what everybody talks about. I wanted to know how you think your Jiu-Jitsu compares to fighters like BJ Penn and “Jacare”?
Maia: I think it’s just different. “Jacare” is amazing, and BJ also. They are both world champions, so I don’t consider myself better than they are. I like to study deep inside the martial art of Jiu-Jitsu and it was working for me during my fights.
Tapology: Talking about your future in the UFC, do you want to get back to a title as quickly as possible or are you planning to work your way back up gradually?
Maia: I believe things happen when they need to happen. I will keep working, and I want to fight for the title for sure, but I can’t rush right now because I just fought and there’s people that need to fight for the title like Chael and Vitor Belfort.
Tapology: Do you have any idea when you will make your return to the UFC?
Maia: They haven’t said anything, but I’ve been thinking about September.
Tapology: Before I let you go, do you have a message for fans that have supported you throughout the past two months?
Maia: I love the fans, because after the fight I was very sad that I lost, but I had so much support from the fans. They really put me up and got me to come back to training and train harder. They made me happy because they said that I was very brave and that I really tried to fight, especially in the end of the fight, so the fans have been a big support for me.
Tapology: Thanks a lot for the time, Demian.
Maia: Thank you, Steve.
