Demian Maia was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil on the 6th of November 1977. His first contact with the Martial Arts world was through Judo at the tender age of 4, a sport that he practiced for 2 years. After an inactivity period, he started taking Karate and Kung-Fu classes by his own initiative. He was 12 and he trained in both these sports until he was 19, when he picked up BJJ. The decision to drop the more traditional martial arts (Karate and Kung Fu), came after he watched an MMA event in the town of Ibrabuera, Brazil, where all 3 of the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu representatives easily won their respective fights without much effort.
He picked up BJJ at the same time he entered University to study Journalism, and his first Jiu-Jitsu academy was Fabio Araujo’s place (who was a Brown Belt at the time under Carlson Gracie). Demian decided to move away from this gym after making the decision to dedicate his time to BJJ and possibly becoming a professional athlete (even though he continued his studies in Journalism).
He sought Fabio Gurgel and his Alliance team academy in Sao Paulo’s Centre, with whom he stayed until graduating as Black Belt in a staggering 4 years and 7 months. Although this is an amazingly short period to reach black belt, Demian Maia was training BJJ 2 to 3 times per day and competing in all the main Tournaments (and winning), earning the World Title in the lower belts (purple and Brown) two years on a row. Before earning his Black belt, Demian Maia had his first MMA experience at the “Tormenta Del Ring” tournament in Venezuela (2001).
Demian was also at the centre of a revolution that almost caused Alliance team’s demise when in 2002 him and a few others decided to fight in CBJJO’s (Confederacao de Jiu Jitsu Olimpico) World Cup, just a few days prior to the World Championships (CBJJ) against Fabio Gurgel and Jacare Romero’s instructions. The reason these fighters fought in the Cup was because CBJJO offered a prize money, which the World Championships didn’t and Demian along with the others (Rodrigo Comprido, Leo Vieira , Terere and “Rico” Vieira ) believed a fighter should get paid for his hard work.
After the refusal to accept Gurgel’s orders, the fighters were penalized and denied entrance at the IBJJF World Championships under the Alliance banner, also being barred from their gym for an undetermined time. With these new guidelines, the athletes decided to start their own team, then forming the Masters Academy (a tribute to their master, Romero Jacaré), a workgroup that would later phase out to the Brasa Clube de Jiu-Jitsu team.
Demian remained under Brasa until he decided to pick mixed martial arts as his main activity, a sport in which he gained tremendous notoriety. After going through a series of minor shows in Brazil and Finland, Maia joined the biggest MMA organization of all, the UFC where he had a fantastic run, winning several “Submission of the Night” bonus prizes.
Demian Maia By Riccardo Baleia