Royce Gracie dominated the early times of UFC. In his Gi he paved the pathway to BJJ enjoying the popularity and recognition it has today.
Way back then Royce managed to secure 10 submission victories in 13 months including UFC editions from 1 to UFC 4 and now Demian Maia is nearing shattering this particular record.
Maia has been active in the UFC since the early days of 2007, he’s even won his first 5 fights with submissions. Back then he fought as a middleweight. But since dropping to welterweight in 2012 he has garnered even more attention – and secured 4 more submissions putting himself within reach of Gracie’s UFC submission record.
Royce commented to MMA Fighting:
“His fight was perfect,” Royce Gracie told MMA Fighting of Maia’s quick submission win over Carlos Condit at UFC on FOX 21. “He showed how efficient jiu-jitsu is, and that he can win only using his jiu-jitsu. The way he’s going, he will beat that number and put the record way up [laughs]. He’s doing great.”
“You don’t need to trade punches or allow getting punched in the face to win the fight, and Demian shows that,” Gracie said. “He spent some time wanting to use muay thai, but grew a lot when he started believing in his jiu-jitsu again. You have to work on your stand-up to know what’s coming, but jiu-jitsu is enough to win the fight.”
Maia is currently the most victorious Brazilian in UFC history – he has 18 wins with his quickest submission being the last one – against Condit.
But it goes even further, in the last 3 fights that totaled 39 minutes and some seconds, Maia got hit only 13 times.
Indeed Royce doesn’t mince words – he believes him to be along the best grapplers in MMA today. He believes Fabricio Werdum, Kron Gracie and Maia make up the top grapplers in MMA so naturally the welterweight title should be within his reach:
“He has everything,” Gracie said. “He’s a calm fighter, doesn’t get too anxious when he steps in there to try to trade punches. He just goes there and gets the job done.”
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