A routine night out at a bar turned into a night of chaos for former UFC welterweight Demian Maia.

Maia’s latest Octagon appearance came at UFC 263 in a unanimous decision loss to Belal Muhammad. Although his fighting skills are still a problem for most fighters, the 44-year-old looked over his physical peak for years in the recent losses against Muhammad and Gilbert Burns.

The UFC parted ways with Maia in August, along with former bantamweight Jimmie Rivera.

Maia is without a doubt one of the most popular and respected fighters in UFC history. He was never one to engage in trash talk during his career and let his brand of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu speak for him.

But a few years ago, Maia’s life was in danger when he was attacked and stabbed and seriously injured. During a recent appearance on Intelligencia Ltda podcast, told Maia about a fight he ended up in with some alleged gang members from the Middle East when he was at a bar in Sweden. (h / t Bloody Armbow)

“I’m in the corner, and just like in other clubs outside Brazil, at 2am they turn on the light,” Maia explained. “02:00, all the lights are on. All the security guards went down to evacuate people and stuff. When I stood up, there were some guys from that gang there and they saw me. I think it was a small town thing. The guy came towards me to attack me, but not exactly attack me. He came to push me. No reason, man. They were very messy. “

At first Maia did not think much about the push, but the quarrel was more serious than he realized.

“They kind of ran the place. I was upset that my knee did not get better. I had injured myself again in Sweden who taught class and stuff. When the guy came to put his hand on me, I threw an elbow at him. In his face he said. But that elbow was so hard he did not fall over. He imploded in exactly the same place, you know. Do you know when a guy lands on his own leg? Yes the man. He imploded. The man, when he fell was mine first thought, ‘God, please help me. I hope I did not kill this guy. Because it was too strong and the guy immediately darkened. I thought:’ Imagine I killed this guy, I’ll be fucking pissed, stuck in Sweden for the rest of my life. ‘

“F — k, no one would want to know he came to attack me,” Maia continued. “In the end I would have killed the guy. Suddenly I see a little guy coming up next to me quietly. All this I’m talking about was in five or six seconds, I do not know. But very fast. The elbow, two strokes. I went backwards , the guy came and hit me in the stomach. This guy did not hit me in the stomach, he stabbed me. And I knew it right away. Why did I notice it? Because these guys do not know how to fight, they just make trouble. If the guy is not a good boxer who knows what to do, he will never hit you in the stomach. He will hit you in the head. The guy will try to hurt you in the face. And as soon as it hit down here I felt a knock and they ran away. “

Maia then explained what went through his head after being stabbed.

“I had this thing in my head, ‘Can not get air, can not get air.’ I knew that getting air could cause emboli, and I got this paranoia. I still did not know if I was stabbed. I just felt the knock “But I was suspicious. When the boys ran away, I did this. I looked quickly and my shirt was drenched in blood.”

Maia was sent to a local hospital immediately after the incident. He was treated and released quickly by medical personnel.

Maia’s story shows that MMA fighters can still fall victim to violent attacks, despite their athletic distinctions. Thankfully, Maia is still alive to tell the story and continues to practice and teach the art of BJJ.

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