He won’t get a belt to show for it, but you might as well crown Demian Maia the UFC’s ‘BMFG’: baddest motherf***ing grappler.
Maia, former Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion, asserted his grappling supremacy Saturday by defeating former college wrestling champion Ben Askren with a rear-naked choke submission in the third round of their welterweight main event at UFC on ESPN+ 20 in Singapore.
The fight’s final sequence was the culmination of a back-and-forth affair that, perhaps surprisingly, featured a fair amount of striking. Both Maia and Askren were pretty even in terms of total strikes landed, with each man having success. The evidence of that could be seen on their faces.
For his part, Maia said that was part of his plan to keep the fight standing early so he could take advantage of a tired Askren when the fight hit the mat later on.
“I knew that I could strike in other rounds, because my nature is always to grapple,” Maia said. “But I tried to get some advantages in striking to make him more tired, then go to the ground. Because he’s so tough, especially on top. He’s a very hard guy to fight.”
Askren (19-2 MMA, 1-2 UFC) showed no fear in trying to take Maia (28-9 MMA, 22-9 UFC) down to the mat, where he’s most dangerous. Askren was successful on a number of occasions, which led to some intriguing grappling exchanges.
In the third round, Askren shot in for a single leg and ended on top of Maia, but it was only for a brief moment as Maia reversed the position and transitioned to taking Askren’s back. With his legs locked around Askren’s waist, Maia went to work with punches to open up the submission attempt. Once he sunk it in, Askren couldn’t break free and went to sleep after a tap the referee didn’t see.
“I defend well, the takedowns. But he’s a great wrestler,” Maia said. “… I tried to change my game a little bit from the bottom, because I know he will be waiting for the halfguard, so I went to different stuff.”
The victory added to Maia’s impressive UFC resume, which includes 22 wins (second most behind Donald Cerrone’s 23) and 11 by submission (second behind Charles Oliveira’s 13). Of those submission victories, nine have come by way of rear-naked choke.
As for Askren, it’s back to the drawing board. The former Bellator and ONE Championship title hold entered the UFC undefeated and is now on a two-fight losing streak.
