That fight was Maia’s thirty eighth as a professional MMA fighter, but bout number thirty nine could be his last as a professional MMA fighter.
“I’ll come back to training and do one more fight then that’s it,” Maia said after the event (via Mike Bohn of MMA Junkie). “I want to do one more then probably retire. Tonight I was feeling pretty good. I feel I was getting my good positions, but respect. He defended well, he’s a great jiu-jitsu fighter, but he got me with the hook and that happens. That happens in this sport with the small gloves and that’s it. The referee didn’t help too much, but no excuse. He did well and he deserves (the victory).”
If Maia does indeed follow through with his plan to retire, it would end a professional MMA career that began in September of 2001.
Maia says that he would like to battle either Diego Sanchez and Donald Cerrone in his final professional MMA bout.
“There’s two guys — one is Diego Sanchez, because he’s been asking for this fight for a long time so I want to fight him in the last fight,” Maia said (via Damon Martin of MMA Fighting). “A good last fight because he’s a old legend, too. The other one is [Donald] Cerrone, also would be interesting because he has one win more [in the UFC] than I [do].”
Neither Sanchez or Cerrone are booked for a fight at the moment, so Maia may get his wish to battle one of them in a retirement bout.
