Demian Maia details scuffle with Middle Eastern gang in Sweden

Demian Maia has opened up on a past bar brawl that resulted in him being stabbed.

A couple of years ago, Maia was in a bar in Sweden when he was attacked and stabbed and suffered a serious injury. The Brazilian says he got into a scuffle with an alleged Middle Eastern gang member that resulted in him being stabbed.

“I’m in the corner, and like in other clubs outside Brazil, at 2 AM, they turn on the light,” Maia explained on Inteligencia Ltda podcast (via BloodyElbow). “2 AM, all lights turned on. All the security guards went down to evacuate people and things like that. 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 at me to attack me, but not exactly attack me. He came to push me. No reason, man. They were very messy. They kind of ran the place.”

According to Demian Maia, he was upset with the push, but didn’t think much of it. The reason why he was upset was due to the fact that he was dealing with an injured knee and attempting to heal up.

“I was upset because my knee wasn’t getting better. I had hurt myself again in Sweden teaching class and stuff like that. When the guy came to put his hand on me, I threw an elbow at him. In his face,” Maia said. But that elbow was so hard, he didn’t fall over. He just imploded in the same place, you know. Do you know when a guy lands on his own leg? Yeah, man. He imploded. Man, by the time he fell, my first thought was, ‘God, please help me. I hope I didn’t kill this guy.’ Because it was too strong and the guy blacked out right away. I thought, ‘Imagine I killed this guy, I’m going to be f—ked, stuck in Sweden for the rest of my life.’

Image Credit: UFC.com

“F—k, no one would want to know he came to assault me,” Maia continued. “In the end, I would have killed the guy, Suddenly, I see a small guy coming up beside me quietly. All this I’m talking about was in five or six seconds, I don’t know. But very fast. The elbow, two punches. I walked backward, the guy came and hit me in the belly. This guy didn’t hit me in the belly, he stabbed me. And I knew it right away. Why did I notice? Because these guys don’t know how to fight, they’re just making trouble. If the guy isn’t a very good boxer who knows what to do, he’ll never hit you in the belly. He’ll hit 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.

“I had this thing in my head, ‘Can’t get air, can’t get air.’ I knew that getting air could cause embolism, and I got this paranoia. I still didn’t know if I was stabbed. I just felt the knock, but I was suspicious. When the guys ran away, I did it here. I looked over quickly and my shirt was soaked with blood,” Maia concluded.

Demian Maia was rushed to the hospital and he didn’t sustain any life-threatening injuries. The Brazilian would continue his fighting career as he last fought back at UFC 263 in a decision loss to Belal Muhammad. After the setback, the UFC agreed to part ways with the former title challenger.

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