Outside Source
Charles Oliveira was in complete control against Max Holloway. | Getty/UFC
After winning all five rounds against Max Holloway to capture the BMF belt in the main event of UFC 326 on Saturday in Las Vegas, Charles Oliveira made a point of repeating the gesture from his last victory at UFC Rio, going straight from the Octagon to talk to the UFC Brazil broadcast team.
This time, however, Demian Maia, a key figure in his camp for Holloway and Mateusz Gamrot, was not on the broadcast team. Even so, Oliveira made a point of thanking him.
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“Demian, you told me: ‘Calm down, no rush’. Sorry for not getting the submission, but I think I did 100% of what we trained: control, stick to him and not give him any opportunity to work,” explained the Brazilian, who was positioned next to commentators Vitor Miranda, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and announcer Andre Azevedo.
While in Europe on a seminar tour, Maia spoke with Sherdog.com about the tactic discussed.
“Charles deserves all congratulations, I’m very happy,” Maia said. “Fighting a legend like Holloway, dominating all five rounds and coming away with only two small scratches on his face is an impressive feat. First of all, credit to Ali, his Iranian wrestling coach. An excellent fighter and coach, and to Diego Lima, who is the head coach.”
Maia then explained the meaning behind Oliveira’s statement on the Brazilian broadcast.
“What I did to help was analyze Holloway’s fights,” Maia said. “Analyzing his fights, I realized he defended leg takedowns very well. So the game matched perfectly because Charles takes down well attacking the body (judo and Greco-Roman takedowns), so we trained that a lot.”
With the experience of having fought for the UFC belt twice (in 2010 against Anderson Silva for the middleweight title at UFC 112 and in 2017 against Tyron Woodley for the welterweight title), Maia knew that the tactical plan on the feet would be of fundamental importance for “Do Bronx” to surprise the Hawaiian.
“Since Holloway has a lot of volume, the idea was to exchange blows, get into that volume without exposing himself too much, to clinch at the right time on the body, because even if he didn’t take him down, it would leave Holloway worried about the takedown and tired,” Maia said.
Maia added that he came away impressed by Oliveira’s strength following a sparring session.
“One day a sparring partner missed [practice], and I stepped in to help out,” Maia said. “Even though he was tired and I was alternating with another guy, I could see how strong he was and how good he is in that hand-to-hand clinch. So much so that I was fully convinced that if he reach that, he would take Holloway down. That’s what happened in all five rounds.”
Practice Makes Perfect
Maia says that repetition training was also key for Charles to be able to keep Holloway on the ground for more than 20 minutes, something that no other opponent had managed to do.
“We worked a lot on feints in the circuits to make Holloway insecure… One thing I worked on a lot with him was, if he ended up on the bottom or on top, not letting Holloway escape from the ground to stand up — to cling and follow,” Maia said. “It was something Marcelo Garcia told me many years ago. You don’t need to take the wrestler down. If you grapple with him and follow his escape, you’ll end up on his back. That’s what happened when he ended up on the bottom. I had the guys try to get on top of him and run away, bringing the fight to striking. Don’t let them separate after clinching. We repeated this exhaustively in a circuit. He’s already very good at it, but the repetitive training made him sharper.”
Maia also made a point of acknowledging Diego Lima’s work and Holloway’s qualities on the ground.
“On the feet, Diego did a spectacular job conditioning him to work a lot with his low kicks and front kick to close the distance and not let Holloway get a comfortable distance. This work by Diego was fundamental for Charles to close the distance so easily. Another thing that impressed me is how well-trained Holloway was on the ground,” Maia said. “It’s very difficult to escape Charles’ rear-naked choke, even over the chin he puts everyone to sleep, and Holloway escaped several times.”
In the fight with Gamrot at UFC Rio, Oliveira moved Demian by praising his importance in the camp in the middle of the broadcast as soon as he left the Octagon. This time Oliveira and his head coach made a point of thanking him as soon as they arrived at the locker room.
“Charles’ generosity is impressive, he didn’t need to do that in UFC Brazil live in Rio. Now, once again, right after the fight he called me, with Diego,” Maia said. “It was very cool. I already told Diego if he needs me, just let me know. I´ll be there.”
Considered one of the greatest representatives of jiu-Jjtsu in MMA history, Demian Maia retired from the octagon in 2021 with 39 MMA fights (28 wins, 14 of them by submission). Now Maia has his own BJJ gym in São Paulo and also works as UFC commentator.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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