Demian Maia targets next year as his last before retirement, plans to finish out the four fights on his contract

Whenever an MMA debate breaks out over who is the greatest BJJ practitioner in all of the sport, you would be hard-pressed to find a time that the name Demian Maia won’t be mentioned.

Maia, who is set to take on rising contender, Kamaru Usman this Saturday in the main event of UFC Chile knows that the road is coming to an end in his illustrious career and he took some time Monday to discuss how much longer he thinks he’ll be fighting for.

Long-time UFC contender @DemianMaia says he will likely retire after his contract is done with the UFC. Maia has 4 fights left on his contract including his upcoming bout at #UFCChile. Watch #TheMMAHour live: https://t.co/11sYrEm5Ug pic.twitter.com/ys6Vhve7dl

— MMA Fighting (@MMAFighting) May 14, 2018

“I’m okay, I’m happy, the UFC’s happy, I think everything is set up right now. For me, it’s going to be a challenge for sure but I’m thinking that…I want to fight this year, maybe next year finish these fights on my contract. You know I love to fight and I’m still performing well doing training camps but I don’t know if I’m still fighting after next year. This could be my last contract with the UFC then after that, I’m retired.

Yeah, I think so [that these last four fights will be it]. Not because I don’t like or enjoy [fighting], almost 11 years in this game, UFC and it’s a lot of commitment, a lot of pressure. And also I want to have different projects that I like to do and I want to be a little bit more with family and kids and give more time for them also.”

At 40 years of age, Maia has competed in 33 fights since his debut in 2001. With a 25-8 record with plenty of high caliber names on his resume, Maia has done just about everything one can in the sport without winning a world title. Regardless, a belt doesn’t define the talent that he possesses.

Since dropping to welterweight in 2012, Maia has only lost to the respectable likes of Jake Shields, Colby Covington and the current Bellator champion, Rory MacDonald as well as the current UFC champion, Tyron Woodley.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 5/14/2018.