Demian Maia, he's a fourth-degree Brazilian jiu-jitsu blackbelt, an ADCC champion and perhapsthe greatest grappler in mixed martial arts. But as a practitioner of a ground-based fighting art a key part of his game is how he takes the fight to
the ground and in this breakdown we will be examining his favorite takedown
tactics. Let's start with his setups, his most common entry into his shots is the
jab fake where he faints his jab in order to draw a reaction out of his
opponent by either blocking or a counter shot and when they do react he
drops his level underneath their lead hand and straight onto a single leg.
Another way is waiting for his opponent to jab or step in with their lead leg
and as soon as they extend their leg Demian Maia will time it and drop down into a single leg as a southpaw with his right leg forward the single leg shot is a much
quicker and easier option that is always there against Orthodox opponents once
Demian Maia gets in on the single leg his preferred finish is running the pipe
where he rotates his outside leg backwards which spins the opponent while at the same time dropping head shoulder and chest pressure down on the
opponent's thigh this shifts the opponent's centre of gravity to a point
where they would need the use of their trapped leg to stand and maintain balance but instead they're forced to sit down.
This finish works in open space but also
against the fence where you must rotate your opponent away and off the fence to
prevent them from using it to lean on and maintain balance in place of their
trapped leg. While it is most common to do this with the head on the inside Demian Maia has also used this finish with the head on the outside and while this is not
surprising in wrestling, in BJJ where submissions are involved this is often
seen as too risky in a rookie mistake as it gives your neck to the opponent for a
guillotine choke. While that risk certainly does exist here it is being
used safely against multiple high level competitors from the single leg another
finish Demian Maia executes is the back trip where he's outside hand may reach and
secure hip control on the far waste of his opponent as he looks to trip the far leg
out from underneath them while circling his way down to the mat and over the top
of the blocked leg this will result in Demian Maia taking the back or landing in top position and he will even look to trip the far leg without gaining control of
the waist.
Demian Maia will also look to trip the near leg proactively hooking it
after his shot if he is unable to lift it or if his opponent can get it back to
the mat and this all works in combination with his back taking
strategy of constantly spiralling around his opponent looking to secure hooks. In
fact in his first MMA fight Demian Maia charges straight into the clinch and immediately circles to the back and executes a trip on his opponent.
Although
it does have the goal of securing his hooks once he gets the back and secures
a body lock he has a variety of trips he will execute to bring his opponent to
the mat most often he is blocking a leg and dragging his weight and the opponent
backwards over the top of it but he will also continuously hack away at any leg
of the opponents that is available to attack as a means of destabilizing them
and breaking them down. Here against the fence Demian Maia
looks for a trip which allows him to begin rotating towards his opponents back now
from a T – position he looks to trip again which rotates him all the way to
the back where he completes the takedown. The trip against the fence is another of
Demian Maia's favorite takedowns. Once there Demian Maia will look to secure under hooks and trip the opponent by reaping at the calf and rotating them away from the fence
and dropping his weight at the same time this is made easier if the opponent's
foot is placed away from the edge of the fence but Demian Maia will also stretch to
the hook if necessary.
One danger in executing trips in this fashion is that
during the process of lifting your leg to trip you momentarily place yourself
at a disadvantage as soon as you lift a leg to trip you now only have one point
of balance while your opponent still has two and even three if they are leaning
against the fence this creates a risk of your opponent reversing the takedown and landing in top position regardless of that risk Demian Maia was able to make this takedown work consistently maybe in part due to his opponent's hesitation in
wanting to go to the ground at all. He had success with this technique even
from a front headlock position and was able to score the takedown in open space
and I also have to mention the amazing lateral drop he scored on Chael Sonnen
then immediately transitioned into a triangle choke for the win.
Demian Maia
will also switch to a double leg if necessary when he does his favourite means of
finishing is to turn the corner which he does by pushing off from his outside leg
to drive his force at an angle across his opponent's hips. Driven by his
pursuit for the back Demian Maia will constantly spiral and rotate towards his
opponent's back taking them to the ground with him. An on occasion he will also switch to a
double leg against the fence favouring a bump and dump where he can secure his
hands together behind the back of his opponents and then bump them off the
fence also if you remember back to the start of the analysis where we covered
running the pipe well if the first attempt of that is not successful
it sets up a switch to a double leg by reaching for the far knee and driving
across the opponent's hips and here is a very interesting leg entanglement that
Maya uses to sweep and secure a double leg takedown.
Another option that Maya
would use to secure a takedown is to pull guard his general sequence would be
to take a shot and then if sprawled on you would look to scoot into a half
guard position secure and under hook and then use it to sweep or stand back up
and finish a takedown or else he would jump guard from an upper body clinch
with an over hook a pulling guard does come with obvious risks but Demian Maia
made it work for him on multiple occasions at a high level.
I do have a full series in
the pipeline on pulling guard in MMA so subscribe if that is an area that
interests you. So where to from here well aside from a brief moment as K1 Maia,
when he turned into a kickboxer, his submission game has been one of the
sharpest in all of the UFC taking him to 12 submission victories and working his
way into two title shots in two different weight categories. No matter
what happens in his future he will always be known as one of the greatest
grapplers in freestyle fighting but I would be remiss to conclude this
breakdown without mentioning that Demian Maia is now 0 for 49 takedown attempts in his last 3 UFC bouts with all of his opponents able to completely shut out
his takedown game and nullify any chance of a submission being accomplished.
An
important note is that a common thread with all three of these opponents
was that each one was an all-american folk style wrestler so that leaves me
with a question if the submission techniques and effectiveness of a
ground-based fighting art is completely negated if you cannot get the fight to
the ground then how much emphasis should be placed on takedowns within that
system it is also worth noting that the rate of submission victories overall in
the UFC has been falling however this is not a reflection of jiu-jitsu being less
applicable but rather the level of jiu-jitsu has risen across the board as
now every UFC competitor will be training with jiu-jitsu practitioners
day in day out and if a competitor was to stop training jiu-jitsu or submissions
and let a skill disparity develop that will quickly find themselves submitted.
With that being the case is it better to focus for MMA on going for takedowns
control and ground striking let me know your thoughts on this and possible
solutions in the comments below and that concludes our study on Demian Maia's takedown game if you would like to see more and his guard pulling techniques in the
future then subscribe so you don't miss that video in the meantime like share
and please comment below on any questions or queries you may have.
Peace!.
