Demian Maia looks back at the bizarre Anderson Silva fight that changed his career

An injury to middleweight contender Vitor Belfort got Demian Maia the title shot he always wanted at UFC 112, in 2010, but what happened inside the Octagon is still remembered as one of the most bizarre fights in the history of the promotion.

Maia entered the championship fight with a 12-1 record with five of his six UFC wins coming by way of submission, but Anderson Silva was in a different level. Most fans didn’t see how Maia could dethrone the 185-pound king, and he did not after all. However, the five-round fight was different than anything anyone had ever seen before.

Silva, who was coming off a devastating first-round knockout over former light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin, decided to talk trash at Maia the entire fight. He outstruck the challenger, his belt was never in danger, but never really put his opponent in danger too.

UFC president Dana White was pissed at “The Spider” for putting on one of the worst title fights in UFC history, and some people wonder if Maia is still paying for that weird fight.

“That fight changed my career,” Maia told Ariel Helwani during a recent appearance on The MMA Hour. “At that time, Anderson never had any real challenge. That fight went five rounds, and I didn’t do well, but in the end I was a little bit better, was trying to fight. A lot of people started to recognize me as a fighter, even (though) I lost. A lot of good feedback.

“But what I mean is that it doesn’t matter the feedback, everybody spoke about that fight because of Anderson. These other people were talking about the fight, and that I think put me in a different level. People started to recognize me more because I was that guy that fought Anderson.

“But, yeah, maybe your theory is right, maybe I’m still paying for that. I lost some fights also after that, too.”

Like he does for every fight, Maia only watched his loss once. As soon as he was cleared from the hospital in Abu Dhabi and returned to his hotel room, Maia sat down with his team and watched the UFC 112 main event, and that was something different than anything he has ever experienced in combat sports.

“Why I think it was sad for me was because, for the first time in a fight, in one point I didn’t believe I could win,” he said. “After the end of the third round, when I landed the first punch… I remember I landed two …

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