Demian Maia was scared for his life during battle against bone infection
For the biggest part of his MMA career, Demian Maia found a way to avoid any major injuries that forced him to pull out of fights or miss any significant stretch of time.
Maia has been the picture of consistency throughout his time in the UFC with at least two fights per year since joining the promotion (outside of his first fight in late 2007), but the decorated Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt faced the toughest challenge of his life last year and it had nothing to do with an opponent in the Octagon.
Maia was diagnosed with a bone infection called osteomyelitis in his right clavicle -- an infection that could actually lead to the loss of a limb if not treated properly. What started out as a staph infection eventually forced Maia into the hospital on multiple occasions and eventually took him out of action for several months.
"It was crazy. When I got that, I went to the hospital three times because the problem kept coming back and we were leaving the hospital to keep training and not miss the fight and then it was not possible. I came back for the third time and it was crazy," Maia told FOX Sports about the ordeal.
"When you do the things you need to do to recover and you don't get better, it starts getting scary and you start to ask yourself if you're even going to be able to fight again."
Returning to fighting was the least of Maia's worries at one point because an infection like the one he was afflicted with can easily spread and if treatment doesn't work, things can move from bad to dire in a hurry.
There was a time when he was dealing with the disease last year where Maia's biggest concern became his own mortality as he started down an enemy that he couldn't see or face head on like he had done every other opponent in his life.
"At one point, I wasn't even thinking about my fight career, I was thinking about my life," Maia said. "Thinking about my family and kids because you never know what's going to happen. You don't know how your body will react, you don't know how the infection will react. At one point, I was not even thinking about my fight career -- I was thinking about my life."
The treatment for the bone infection was a constant flow of antibiotics into Maia's bloodstream to combat the disease and during the time he was receiving treatment, the veteran fighter had to stop training all together. It was the first time since he was a child that Maia wasn't on the mats or doing some kind of fighting training and that's when he knew this was going to be an uphill battle to return to do what he loved.
"I took three months of antibiotics and a big part of this was IV antibiotics and after that I was finally clean. I've never gone so much without training. For three months, I was running a little bit and I was working out but not doing any fight training. It was tough," Maia described.
When Maia finally received the news that the infection was gone and his body was returning to normal, it was definitely the biggest win of his life.
"That was a very happy day when they saw there was nothing there anymore and I was totally recovered, no fever or nothing," Maia said. "I slowly started to train again and after a couple of months I started to feel good again. I can't explain how excited I am to be able to fight again."
As Maia gets ready to return this weekend at UFC Fight Night in Brazil against Ryan LaFlare, his outlook on the future has been changed dramatically.
Six months ago he was fighting for his life and a return to fighting was anything but a foregone conclusion. Now Maia is back in the spotlight and headlining a card in his home country.
It doesn't get much better than that.
"When you're fighting all the time like I have been for the past six or seven years, three times a year or sometimes even four, after those 10 months waiting you realize how much you miss that. You're excited because you're going to do what you love again," Maia said.
"Sometimes when you're fighting all the time you don't get the right mindset, but when a situation comes up that almost takes all that away from you, to be able to come back, it's a great pleasure."
