UFC middleweight contender and former ADCC champion Demian Maia is arguably the best Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practitioner in the UFC today. Maia, along with Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza and Roger Gracie, are the mixed martial arts equivalents to BJJ as Anderson Silva is to striking. There are black belts, and then there are these guys.



Maia (top) controls middleweight Kendall Grove at The Ultimate Fighter 12 Finale.

Maia entered the UFC as a highly touted prospect, virtually unmatched when fights hit the ground. He took off, scoring submission wins in his first 5 fights in the organization, including 4 Submission of the Night awards. Maia then hit a bump with a lightning quick KO loss to Nate Marquardt, followed by an improved showing of his stand up game in a decision win over Dan Miller, improving to a very impressive 12-1 record.

Soon after, Maia was granted a title shot, filling in against UFC demi-god and part-time superhero, MW champion Anderson Silva, in a fight that was one of the most obnoxious and embarrassing headliners in UFC history at UFC 112. Maia was simply outclassed on the feet, much like every person who decides to stand with Silva. Unable to pull the fight into his world on the mat, Maia was picked apart for 3 rounds before 17 screws popped loose in Anderson's mercurial head. Anderson then turned into a dancing maniac for the final two rounds, and Maia decided to go for broke swinging on the most elusive striker in the sport's history. He lost, and neither he nor Silva came out of the fight looking good.

After his failed title shot, Maia strung together two impressive but somewhat underwhelming decision wins over Mario Miranda and former TUF winner Kendall Grove.

All the while, he toiled to improve his striking, and he had done so remarkably, stunning powerhouse Mark Munoz in the first round of their UFC 131 tilt. Maia strung together combos like a video game character, before getting tired and getting outworked by the stronger Munoz. But something happened in that fight that would have been unthinkable 2 years ago: Maia took Munoz' back in the 2nd round, and was unable to finish the fight or truly establish position. Yes, he threatened with a painful looking neck crank from the crucifix position, but Munoz was able to slip out fairly easily and regain dominant his feet. What happened, that Maia's once vaunted ground game was unable to put away Munoz when he had such a dominant position?



Maia attempts a modified neck crank from Mark Munoz' back at UFC 131.

In an interview with SBNation's Luke Thomas, wrestling phenom Muhammad "King Mo" Lawal explained that he felt wrestling in MMA was subpar, stating,

"When high-level wrestlers come into the game, they get used to wrestling guys that have no wrestling background and it's so easy for them that their skills deteriorate. Guys like Randy Couture, Matt Hughes, Matt Lindland, and Dan Henderson. They stop working with high-level wrestlers to sharpen their skills."

This line of thinking makes a lot of sense, especially pertaining to Demian Maia. Since his BJJ is at such a high level, has he fallen into thinking that he doesn't need to consistently hone his skillset to keep it sharp? Has his obvious focus on striking training meant a decline in his success rate when it comes to grappling? His bouts with Grove and Miranda proved that Maia is still worlds better than nearly everyone on the mat, but was his failure to finish indicative of a slight slippage in his BJJ wizardry?

Against Mario Miranda at UFC 118, Demian Maia was dominant, thoroughly controlling Miranda for the majority of the 15 minute bout. In that fight, Maia rode dominant position after dominant position on Miranda for minutes on end, aggressively seeking a submission finish. After the fight, many practitioners of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu wondered what was going on with Maia. He seemed to have gone for submissions that were not there, and missed submissions that were ripe for the taking. Most who watched it wondered why Maia was unable to finish Miranda, who was clearly outclassed on the mat.

In the Kendall Grove fight, Maia established dominant positions on the ground through the first two rounds, gaining mount once and taking Grove's back twice. Grove did an admirable job defending against Maia's jiu jitsu, but would this have happened against the Demian Maia of 2009 and earlier? Against Grove and Munoz, Maia failed to show off his proficiency of maintaining dominant positions, letting both escape during scrambles. Maia's back mount used to be inescapable. Against Munoz, he never really secured the back, instead trying for a low percentage move that Munoz was able to power out of.

With his loss to Munoz at UFC 131, Maia seems to be at a crossroads. His grappling acumen is still world class. His striking has improved immensely. But is the one-dimensional Demian Maia from his early UFC career the more effective Demian Maia? Maia will turn 34 this year, and although not "old" in fighting years, he is at that point where he may only have one run left for a UFC title. He is 3-3 in his last six fights. The problem facing Demian Maia: is his jiu jitsu still good enough to give him the automatic win when the fight hits the mat?