Demian Maia on Saturday was framed as a throwback and an outlier in today’s MMA scene during the UFC on Fox 21 telecast, moments before he took Carlos Condit to the mat with ease and submitted him in less than two minutes. Maia was described this way because of the perception that he, like many fighters in the earlier days of the sport, is a specialist heavily reliant on one specific discipline. While Maia is indeed a throwback and an outlier, it’s for slightly different reasons.
Maia’s jiu-jitsu is his greatest strength, but he’s far from a one-note specialist like fighters from the past.