Demian Maia = Modern Day Royce?

marwash said:
is this a fair comparison?
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No. Maia is much more impressive than Royce because when Royce was in the UFC no one knew jiu jitsu. Nowadays because everyone has at least "good" or "ok" jiu jitsu, if often gets nullified. The fact that Maia can submit guys left and right in a time where everyone knows jiu jitsu is much more impressive.
 
marwash said:
is this a fair comparison?
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Nope. Royce had shitty wrestling and TDD and often found himself on his back against even just halfway decent wrestlers like Shamrock. He was more of "gracie guard fight off my back type" of grappler. Maia is totally different and likes to keep position and go for the rear mount.
 
Yes, same strategy, same techniques on the ground. Is he better? Of course, everyone is better in 2016.
 
He's Royce in the sense that he's way ahead of the curve in terms of BJJ in MMA, but dominating with BJJ today is 100x more difficult than it was when Royce did it. Comparing Maia to Royce is underselling Maia, IMO.
 
Maia's BJJ possibly is better than anyone from the Gracie clan. But a 170lb Royce's dominance over the openweight division will never be replicated again.
 
Bartinho said:
Yes, same strategy, same techniques on the ground. Is he better? Of course, everyone is better in 2016.
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Not really. The two fight very differently, especially the latest version of Maia.

Maia is a takedown artist and specializes in getting rear mount and the RNC. Maia almost never attacks from guard and prefers to do his finishes from rear mount, whether RNC or Triangle Choke when someone tries to squirm out the backdoor, or from mount if the opponent refuses to turn his back (as early Maia didn't GNP, so many opponents didn't feel they needed to turn around to avoid punches). If Maia is on the bottom he doesn't really attack with an armbar or triangle, he goes for a sweep to transition to the top or get your back.

Royce was more generalized and takes what's given to him. I wouldn't call him a takedown artist, like the only person I can remember him really taking down was Art Jimmerson. Most everyone else was taking him down, and he would tap them attacking from the guard. Royce also used stuff you can't do today because of no-gi, like lapel chokes. His go to moves were the RNC, Lapel Choke and Armbar.
 
we can compare the two only for theorycraft purposes, but dont forget rules were different back in the day. There were no weight classes, god damnit. Royce fought guys with A LOT of weight over him. Plus, basically only biting and eye gouging were forbiden.
Royce did great at his time. Maia was doing good up to a certain point and has been great for the past what, 1.5/2 years?
I am a big Maia fan and Im not dimishing his accomplishments by any means, he fights competition A LOT more prepared than Royce did. IMO he is the best grappler in the UFC, and by far. I expect him to be champ if they dont take like 2 years to give him a title shot.
However, comparing these two - from an exclusive fighting perspective, not considering personality, roids, how humble one is or whatever - is no easy task and I would not jump on voting for Maia. Let us wait until Maia history is done then we can do it, I feel like Maia can still shock some people by subbing the champ.
 
Bartinho said:
Yes, same strategy, same techniques on the ground. Is he better? Of course, everyone is better in 2016.
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you get it.


weird how so many people are overthinking this.

Like, duh, obviously the fighters of today are more adept in bjj than the fighters Royce beat, but the main point is that Maia is just as much ahead of today's fighters as Royce was ahead of the people he fought.
 
Royce roided, disrespected his oponents, tried to finish subs after the tap, and acts like he is a blessing to the world.
Maia is so much better as a person and as a bjj practionner.
 
Not a fair comparison due to different eras.
 
I think at this point, he's better when it comes to MMA. Back in Royce's day, the BJJ fighter would wait to be taken down to implement their BJJ skills. But Maia, like Jacare, goes for TDs and gets the submission rather than wait to be taken down then go for one. And that my friends is scary.
 
I would say Ronda is more Royce like. They both dominated because opponents had no idea what they were doing or how to stop it and then because they simply didn't have the tools or fight intelligence. Then eventually the rest of the world caught up and they were exposed to be less than the unstoppable killers we were told they were but still accomplished a ton before that

Maia's opponents aren't losing because of ignorance they're losing because he's just that good at BJJ. Top blackbelts like Gunnar even know what he's going to do and still can't stop it. He's more like Rickson if we have to pick a Gracie
 
BRaVo cHoKe said:
It can happen to the best of us.
weidman.jpg
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I Still prefer Maia. And Weidman is best than Roidmero and size advantage was too much for Demian who was a little middleweight, not to forget Maia's game true evolved, while Jacaré's game is the same since Strikeforce days...
 
Maia is much better. When Royce did it no one knew anything about BJJ so it was easy pickings for him. Once they learned some he got schooled. Maia is wrecking everyone even with blackbelts
 
marwash said:
you get it.


weird how so many people are overthinking this.

Like, duh, obviously the fighters of today are more adept in bjj than the fighters Royce beat, but the main point is that Maia is just as much ahead of today's fighters as Royce was ahead of the people he fought.
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I didnt read whole thread before replying this makes sense.
 
rapha1985 said:
...forget Maia's game true evolved, while Jacaré's game is the same since Strikeforce days...
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I like both guys but this statement is just wrong. Jacare is easily the more well-rounded fighter. Since losing to Wiedman, Maia has pretty much just doubled down on his style while Jacare has developed a very good standup game.
 
MMAAAM said:
No. Maia is much more impressive than Royce because when Royce was in the UFC no one knew jiu jitsu. Nowadays because everyone has at least "good" or "ok" jiu jitsu, if often gets nullified. The fact that Maia can submit guys left and right in a time where everyone knows jiu jitsu is much more impressive.
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I was about to post the same.

Back when Royce was fighting in the early UFC's it wasn't a sport as such.

Not wanting to diminish what Royce did, but he was fighting against hand picked (by his father) fighters who some of which were just brawlers. I'm sure other BJJ competitors from Brazil could have done what Royce did.

It's a fair comparission to Maia in a way, i.e. dominating with BJJ - knowing before the fight that he's going to go after a submission and getting it - except he's fighting and submitting very well rounded experienced fighters and actually taking less damage than what Royce did against lesser skilled fighters. Much more impressive.
 
BRaVo cHoKe said:
I like both guys but this statement is just wrong. Jacare is easily the more well-rounded fighter. Since losing to Wiedman, Maia has pretty much just doubled down on his style while Jacare has developed a very good standup game.
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A grappler with average standup, or a grappler with great wrestler?

Jacaré have nothing to offer against elite strikers, and his wrestler sucks, so he spend much time being pushed in the face, that is why Romero won that fight.


While Maia's pressure game is more effective and rendered him 6 victories against great competition.
 
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