Jake Shields’ Brazil fight night with Demian Maia

Jake Shields was included as a featured athlete, although we now recognise that he is not vegan. Please read more about this here.

Mixed Martial artist Jake Shields took to the cage in Brazil in a tough contest against Jui Jitsu specialist Demian Maia as the underdog.

Brazilian Maia was fighting in his home country, which has proved to be overwhelming to previous foreign fighters who have had passionate fans creating a ferocious atmosphere. Both men entered the fight following three wins, with Maia known as a submission specialist and Shields having never lost by submission.

Maia started strongly with the fight’s first takedown, although Shields continued with strategy and growing confidence and was able to attack with some takedowns of his own. The heavy grappling that had been expected in the fight did prevail and both men showed some strong skills in that department.

"That was one of the hardest two or three fights of all time," Jake said afterwards. "He is a phenom. I expected that going in. He gave me all I could handle. I'm thankful I got the win."

Before the fight there were talks about both the fighters pushing towards a title shot, and this result will of course underscore Jake’s claim for that opportunity.

Fight preview

Fight review

More on the fight

Jake’s GVA profile