Demian Maia keeping head up after UFC 214 loss: 'Unfortunately for the guys in my division, I will keep going'

ANAHEIM, Calif. – If you think coming up short in his second attempt at achieving UFC gold has deterred Demian Maia, think again.

Seven years after a bizarre middleweight affair with then-champ Anderson Silva, Maia got his long-awaited stab at the welterweight belt Saturday at UFC 214. While it didn’t happen under ideal circumstances – fresh off a May 13 scrap with Jorge Masvidal, he only had five weeks to prepare – Maia made no secret of his motivation to accept the title shot: It could be his only one.

After having all of his takedown attempts stuffed by Tyron Woodley (18-3-1 MMA, 8-2-1 UFC) for five rounds, Maia (25-7 MMA, 19-7 UFC) landed on the unfortunate end of all scorecards. The low-action affair was also heavily booed by the crowd.

The loss – Maia’s first since February of 2014 – may have been a sad chapter of a long, tough saga. But the 39-year-old fighter says it’s not the final one.

“Unfortunately for the guys in my division, I will keep going,” Maia told reporters after the pay-per-view co-headliner, which took place at Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. “I have more energy to burn. I want to keep going a little bit more. I don’t know, let’s see what happens, they’re thinking about opening 165, 175 (pounds). Let’s see.

“I never give up. I came to this fight on five weeks notice, and I leave this fight with my head up.”

When asked about it, Maia wouldn’t discount the role that the short preparation window ultimately played on Saturday. One key thing, he pointed out, was not being able to sharpen up his wrestling in the United States – as he’s done for all his recent (victorious) camps.

But, ultimately, Maia knows it was his choice to accept the fight under less-than-ideal circumstances. And, at this point, playing the “what if” game is a rather futile exercise.

“Of course, if you think about probabilities – I think I would increase my probabilities to win the fight if I had more time,” Maia said. “A longer camp. But I don’t want to complain. That was my chance and I accepted the chance. I came here. And I did what I needed to do.”

Maia is also aware of the high-caliber opponent he was up against – a champion who was smart and skilled enough to avoid the grappling ace’s well-known strengths and stifle the same takedown attempts that had worked on seven opponents before him.

“The other thing is that his gravity center is very low,” Maia said. “And he’s really strong. It plays a role that makes him harder to take him down. I need to be very sharp to take him down. And he defended well. He defended the takedowns pretty well. I couldn’t do the variations that I usually down and take him down, or go to his back.

“I have nothing but respect for him. Like I said, I don’t want to give any excuses. I just came there, I did my best and I lost.”

Maia also clarified that, while his eye may have looked bad after a short punch in the first round, the damage was superficial. And that, apart from the occasional blurriness due to the bright lights in the arena, he doesn’t believe it was a defining factor.

Of course, when it comes to Maia, one successful takedown can change the entire outcome of a fight. But he won’t play the guessing game when it comes to that, either. Asked whether he believed things could’ve been different had Woodley not grabbed the fence in the first round – which got him a warning by Herb Dean – Maia was pragmatic.

“It’s hard to say ‘if’s, but if I could take him down at least once, I knew that I had the chance to submit him or at least to make him really tired and hard to come back,” Maia said. “But rules are rules.

“If he grabbed the fence once and the referee just gave a warning and didn’t deduct a point, that’s the rule. I have nothing to complain (about).”

To hear from Maia, check out the video above.

And for complete coverage of UFC 214, check out the UFC Events section of the site.