Demian Maia, one of the greatest BJJ athletes to ever compete in MMA, has been working for some time as a UFC Fight Pass color commentator in Brazil.

And he’s set on becoming as great in being a color commentator as he is in Jiu-Jitsu and MMA.
As a matter of fact, he did around 1000 fights as “practice” already.

Maia shared his experience in this week’s episode of MMA Fighting podcast Trocação Franca:

Just like in fighting, you train and get better.

People have the impression that since you’re a fighter you know all the fighters and watch all the fighters. Quite the opposite. I’ve watched my opponents in the last years, and people I liked.
I didn’t really sit to watch a UFC event so there’s a lot of new people I don’t know.

But this [UFC Fight Pass Brazil] project started six months ago, and we did the archive of past fights.

We did 1,000 fights, Rodrigo and Roman Laurito commentating and Ivan Bruno calling the fights. That was like training for me.

He still feels like a white belt at being a color commentator:

You’re an athlete and people admire you, and sometimes they’re not comfortable [criticizing you]. I was like: ‘Tell me anything, even if you think it sucks, if you think it’s sh*t”, because I’m here to learn.

I’m a white belt at this. These months of training have me confidence when I called the first card on January 14 in studio, another preparation for the live show the next week in Rio de Janeiro.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Demian Maia (@demianmaia)

Unlock The Secrets Of MMA’s Greatest Back Attacker With Grappling Legend Demian Maia’s System For Controlling The Back & Strangling The Opposition!

• Learn all the fundamentals and techniques you need to maintain the back position and work for rear naked chokes & more.