Photo Marcelo Alonso

Demian Maia said to SporTV in May of this year that he had never been knocked out, even on trainings. At UFC 102, the Brazilian was victim of a powerful punch from Nate Marquadt, who hit the chin of the undefeated fighter. “Actually I was conscious, I wasn’t knocked out, it was a knock down”, Maia guarantees in an interview to Sensei Sportv.

With 11 victories and the first defeat, the Brazilian says that Nate may have used the experience to doesn’t give the mercy blow, while Demian was down, making the judge to give the knock out to American. “A lot of people say that what he have done was nice, because he didn’t hit me on the floor. Maybe was that. But maybe he stopped because, if he misses the punch, I would tangle with him and the fight would still going on”, reveals the biggest representative of Jiu-Jitsu on UFC nowadays.

On Sensei Sportv, Demian talked about the training with the Nogueira brothers. “The defeat had a good side: as I’m a few steps away from the fight for the belt, and as Anderson said that he will retire in three fights, maybe I won’t face him anymore. Rodrigo and Rogério are big friends of mine for a while, but I didn’t train with them to not to cause embarrassment because of their relationship with Anderson. But now I’ve accepted the invitation working the boxing with them, with Dórea, Cigano (Junior dos Santos), and keeping the rhythm of training of Jiu-Jitsu with them too", finished.