When Demian Maia entered the UFC he was already known as a very scary BJJ practitioner holding a record of 6-0 as a middleweight. From there Maia won 5 in a row in the middleweight division all by submission before being stopped via knockout in the first round by Nate Marquardt. With one unanimous decision win over Dan Miller, Maia earned a title shot against middleweight champion Anderson Silva. Maia was unable to earn the victory, but lasted all five rounds is a sloppy contest from both sides. Since then Maia went 3-2 in the middleweight division, with all fights since the Silva fight ending all via decision. The man the was known for finishing fights and tapping out fighters in the first round seemed to be no more. Maia has since dropped down to welterweight where a lot of spectators feel he is underweight, where instead he has excelled. At UFC 148 Maia made his welterweight debut against top prospect Dong Hyun Kim and stopped him via injury in the first round, even though Maia still looked very impressive. Maia’s grappling is top notch and some of the best in all mma and in his last two fights has proven that the old Maia might be back. Maia took on Rick Story this past weekend at UFC 153 in Brazil and was victorious once again in the welterweight division. Rick Story’s lack of respect at the weigh-inns and before the fight came back to haunt him as he was tapped out by a pain choke in the first round of the PPV’s first fight of the night. Literally watching Rick Story’s blood dripping down his face by straight on force produced by Maia, was peer fact that the nasty BJJ game and intensity of Maia is reborn. The welterweight division should be on alert. There are a bunch a good grapplers in the welterweight division, and now they have to deal with another one and the best one in my opinion. Watching fighters like Dan Hardy and others improve their game and other top grapperls like Jon Fitch still dominating on the ground, makes for some interesting match-ups in the future with a new top contender in Demain Maia.