UFC Welterweight Demian Maia has arguably some of the best wrestling in the UFC. He has taken down some of the best wrestlers in the UFC like Chael Sonnen, Jon Fitch (numerous times), Rick Story and Judoka Dong Hyun Kim.
On this episode of mmanuts.com podcast, Demian Maia and BJJ Legend Rodrigo “Comprido” Medeiros join the team and discuss Maia’s takedown background.
Maia states:
When I was training sport Jiu-Jitsu (Gi), I was always thinking of MMA so everything I did was to be used for MMA or No Gi. For my takedowns, I never did takedowns with the lapel. All my takedowns were basically just double and single legs since the time of my Jiu-Jitsu (gi), because my will was to fight MMA.
Demian Maia is in a unique position where he has one of the best Jiu-Jitsu in the game and also excellent wrestling for MMA. Maia was able to make the necessary adjustments to be successful in MMA.
Here you can see him executing a series a takedowns on world class fighters:
Wrestling can make or break you in a tournament. If you, like many other want to win the ADCC one day, you better start training wrestling now! This can give you the competitive edge. If you don’t have a place to train wrestling, check out Hudson Taylor’s “Wrestling for BJJ” DVD Set. Hudson was a division 1 all American wrestler and he is a blue belt World Champion.
