Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest MMA Grapplers

2. Demian Maia

Amusingly, Maia didn't garner a single first-place vote despite finishing as runner-up, though three men and one woman behind him did. And yet, so many people had him No. 2 overall, myself included, that he won that spot. Maia is very possibly the single greatest BJJ practitioner in MMA history. No one could match him for sheer technical mastery, intelligence and timing, with frightening speed and power to boot. He was also a great wrestler, whose outside trip was always beautifully timed, fast, crushingly strong, and very hard to resist. Indeed, Maia was so great that absolutely no one wanted to grapple with him for any period of time, even on top, as he was adept at trapping and then sweeping opponents with submission attempts, including many great grapplers like Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington, both of whom I put on my own top 10 list. All this greatness was magnified by Maia being a relatively weak striker. His opponents never had to worry about his striking and could concentrate solely on stopping his grappling attack. Yet even then, they ended up beaten time after time.

In a division with perhaps the greatest history of grappling ever, welterweight, Maia never quite became UFC champion, though he got very close, challenging for the crown against Tyron Woodley. During that time, he choked out Jason MacDonald, garnered a first round triangle choke of Chael Sonnen, dominated Dan Miller and Jorge Santiago, beat Dong Hyun Kim with a brutal slam, choked out Rick Story in the first round, defeated an all-time great grappler in Jon Fitch, lost a split decision to Jake Shields, my own No. 3 pick, where Maia's grappling was slightly better, tapped out Neil Magny, Matt Brown and Carlos Condit, and defeated the outstanding Gunnar Nelson on the cards. Even in his early 40s, the fearsome Maia edged out a very skilled grappler in Anthony Rocco Martin by decision and then submitted Olympic wrestler Ben Askren, sending him into retirement from MMA and a first-round knockout by Jake Paul. Truly, Maia is a marvel worth remembering. In a sport where all the top fighters are extraordinarily well-rounded, being excellent at striking as well as grappling, Maia had amazing success by being an old-school specialist, so great was his jiu-jitsu.

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