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Demian Maia is a veteran of the UFC who is credited for having the second-most submission wins and the second-most wins by an active fighter.
After his loss to Belal Muhammad at UFC 263, he made a tweet calling out Stockton brawler Nate Diaz for a last fight in the UFC.
Nate Diaz faced a loss on the same night against Leon Edwards at UFC 263. During the post-fight press conference, he was asked if he would like to face Demian Maia. Diaz responded by saying:
"I have a lot of respect for guys like that: Demian Maia, Jacare (Souza) and the whole Jiu-jitsu (background) and Kron Gracie, anybody who comes with that big of a credential that did (them) a whole career, and you know I'm not hunting or looking for those types of fights, but I feel like I'm pretty much on the same side as them. I feel like I'm representing the same thing, Jiu-jitsu background, and I want to say I would like to fight Demian Maia; I think he's great."
Both fighters are veterans in the UFC and have a background in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. They also share common ground in the fact that they have never been submitted to date in the UFC.
Outside of the UFC, Nate Diaz has only had one submission loss, which he faced a decade and a half ago by armbar to Hermes Franca. Hence, Nate Diaz's fight with Demian Maia would be one to behold.
Although both fighters have a BJJ background, they approach their fights in different ways. Here is how both fighters are different:
Nate Diaz is more of a striker, while Demian Maia prefers to grapple
Nate Diaz, with a reach of 76', relies a lot on his striking skills, which is in contrast to his BJJ background. Meanwhile, Demian Maia depends a lot on his skills as a grappler.
Diaz prefers to build pressure with volume punches and get knockout wins. He initiates takedowns only sporadically. Maia, meanwhile, uses his striking skills only to close in on the distance required to initiate a takedown. He tends to take fights to the ground more proactively than Diaz.
In either case, viewers can be certain that if the fight goes to the ground, both fighters could excel.
In the case of a fight between Demian Maia and Nate Diaz, the former, with a reach of 72', will have a four-inch disadvantage, even though both fighters are six feet tall.
Given his reach advantage and his superior success rate of landing strikes (4.62 per minute against Maia's 1.82), Nate Diaz would prefer to keep the fight standing.
# Nate Diaz and Demian Maia have different grappling styles
It is needless to say there would be a lot of technical grappling when two BJJ practitioners like Nate Diaz and Demian Maia face each other. That will especially be the case if their fight is booked as a five-round affair, as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is an art that favors fighters who like to drag their fights for longer periods.
Demian Maia has attempted 251 takedowns in his UFC career, almost thrice the number of the takedown attempts (85) Nate Diaz has made. Maia has landed 60 takedowns, while Diaz has landed just 17.
Although the difference in their takedown success rate (3.9%) between Maia (23.9%) and Diaz (20%) is not too big, Nate Diaz would be at a disadvantage due to the sheer volume of takedowns Demian Maia attempts. Hence, if the two duels, Demian Maia is more likely to initiate taking the fight to the ground than Nate Diaz.
However, Diaz won't shy away from keeping the fight to the ground if Maia takes him down. When not grappling defensively, Diaz is also likely to land takedowns of his own, even if he may not do it as many times as Maia does.
Nate Diaz usually initiates takedowns only in the clinch in the form of throws or as a regular single-leg takedown after grabbing his opponent's leg after a kick.
# Their fight could have an intriguing end
Both fighters are excellent on the ground, so most of the rounds in their fight could end in a stalemate on the ground.
However, Demian Maia's more meticulous use of grappling on the ground and reserved use of ground-and-pound have landed him more submission wins than Diaz. What he lacks in his stand-up game is more than made up for in his ground game.
Maia is extremely good at passing guard and almost always gets a rear-naked chokehold of his opponents as they eventually give away their backs to avoid his ground-and-pound after he mounts them.
In instances when Maia is at the bottom, it is usually because he wants to keep it that way. That lulls his opponent to think they are getting in a better position on the scorecard.
The catch here is that while Demian Maia is at the bottom with his back to the ground, his proficiency in sweeps allows him to assume a dominant position after luring his opponent into a half guard position.
If he does that repetitively, it not only allows him to keep the fight to the ground it also nullifies any advantage his opponents have over him while standing up. In a few cases, Demian Maia also attempts to pull off triangle chokes from the bottom position.
If Diaz chooses to engage with Maia from a top position, his defense against Maia's sweeps in half guard may not be effective enough. Especially so, given that he has been swept in the past by a meager grappler such as Conor McGregor.
That brings us to the question of whether it would be wise for Nate Diaz to engage in any ground fighting against Demian Maia.
Diaz would definitely want to honor his fellow veteran and their common background in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu by upping his ground game while training for this fight. In his fight against Maia, Diaz would also want viewers to witness the most technical grappling exchanges in UFC history. Hence, in all likelihood, Diaz would find ways to improve his ground game by leaps and bounds while also giving Maia the respect he deserves as a grappler.
At this point in his career, Nate Diaz may still have a few more fighting years left in him, but he's almost as close as Maia to being released from the UFC, given the amount of losses he has accumulated.
Although grappling against Maia would be a big challenge for him, Diaz has never been one to back away from challenges. That is evident in the fact that he always takes fights against difficult opponents, sometimes even on short notice.
Regardless of the outcome of their hope, one can only hope that Demian Maia retires with a bang by taking on Nate Diaz.
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