Peinado and Demian trained together. Photo: Personal archive.
For his stature and Jiu-Jitsu quality, Antonio Peinado was one of Demian Maia’s trumps resulting in his win over Kendall Grove at TUF 12. The Alliance black belt comments on the experience and analyzes how Demian performed based on what their plans for the fight.
Did Demian do what you guys planned to do?
I felt it went perfectly and he put to practice what we trained to do. He took him down and passed guard with ease. He said he would have no problem with Kendall, and everything worked out fine.
What precautionary measures did you work on for this fight that proved to be vital in winning?
Grove is a really big guy and we’d seen him work well against the cage. He has good elbows from the clinch and you have to be careful when shooting in on his legs. We saw these as being his most dangerous facets, and that’s what we worked on. You could see how when he put Kendall against the cage Demian would take him down, just like we trained to do.
Having trained MMA now, do you feel inclined to fight MMA too?
It fired me up a lot. It was a unique experience. I always wanted to do it, and it turns out to be a natural cycle. Who knows? There’s a lot I need to do in Jiu-Jitsu still but, once that’s done, I’ll think about it. It’s a project for the future.
So when will you next compete in the gi?
I’ll be at the European Open and I’ve already started training for it. I want to compete in everything the first half of 2011 and win, God willing.