São Paulo’s Demian Maia, 32, arrived in the U.S. this week and made sure not to let the pace in training for his Feb. 6 fight against the now also-black belt (as you read the other day on GRACIEMAG. com) Dan Miller lag.
He had barely touched down in California and the clever Demian headed straight for Jiu-Jitsu University, a GMA affiliate academy, for some no-gi training with Saulo and Xande Ribeiro.
” Xande’s Jiu-Jitsu is sharper than ever,” said the UFC middleweight in praise. “We train a lot, he, Cadu (Francis) and I. Saulo was teaching at the time, but then he came over and gave me some important pointers for my game. As he always does, in fact. ”
From there, Demian headed for appointments with some sponsors, but didn’t let the dust settle.
“The time is coming (UFC 109), and I feel ready, in the best shape of my life. Now I’m in the car, arriving at Minotauro’s house in San Diego to do some training with him, Cigano and Dorea,” he said, excited and in a rush, trying to find his way. “A few more days and I’ll head to Las Vegas.”
Sure enough, Demian found the address. He set about working his firsts with the boxing coach, and kindly sent in some photos (taken by photographer Flavio Scorsato) to GRACIEMAG.com.
Check out the marathon of Demian’s training via twitter: @ demianmaia.
