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.