UFC welterweight Demian Maia submitted Ben Askren last year and when looking back, he believes that it might be his “greatest fight”.
Demian Maia took on Ben Askren in the main event of UFC Singapore last October. It was a reasonably competitive bout, until the 3rd-round, when the Brazilian was able to sink in a rear-naked choke, forcing Askren to pass out. Maia was awarded a technical submission vicotory.
The result extended Maia’s winning streak to 3-straight, with 2 wins coming by the way of submission. Ben Askren retired from the sport of MMA shortly after losing to Maia. The Brazilian fighter is widely considered to be the greatest grappler in MMA history and the fact that many fans believed Askren was, in fact, the best grappler in MMA made his victory so much sweeter.
He recently talked about his victory over Askren with the UFC:
“The fight with Ben, maybe one day I’m going to look back and maybe see that is my greatest fight. For me, all the people who like grappling, they were really excited for this fight for many years. Not just for last year but I remember Ben was in other events, people were asking me if it would be a dream match to fight him. He’s a unique guy also, he represents wrestling in a unique way, and everything he does is using his wrestling. He and I are the only two guys who do that really purely today. So, for my career and for my legacy it was a very important fight. I had a lot of pressure going into that fight because of that. I knew everything involved and I knew how good he was.” Maia said.
Maia is set to return this weekend against Gilbert Burns in the co-main event at UFC Brasilia. Burns is a former 3x world champion in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu himself and has stated that he plans to finish Demian Maia in their bout.
This article first appeared on CLOSEDGUARDMEDIA.com on 14th March, 2020.
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