Yesterday’s announcement that lightweights Gray Maynard and Clay Guida will meet in the main event of UFC on FX 4 wasn’t a surprise.
The bout had been rumored for months. It was going to happen, so it was just a matter of figuring out where to slot the fight on a busy slate of summer events. And it pairs two lightweights who are still near the top of the division, despite losing in both championship and contender fights over the last 12 months.
I get it. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it, and I’ll tell you why.
Guida is the most popular fighter in the lightweight division. More than the current champion Benson Henderson and more than Frankie Edgar, Guida has a rabid following that desperately wants to see him succeed. They want to see him in title fights.
Maynard is pretty much the opposite at this point. He never endeared himself to fans even while putting on two incredibly exciting fights with Frankie Edgar in 2011, and I’d wager that only two percent of UFC fans, at the very most, would care to see him get another title shot at Henderson.
Maynard actually has a ton of personality. He’s an interesting dude when you get him away from the cage.
Talk to him about riding his mountain bike on the cliffs out in Red Rock Canyon in Las Vegas, and his eyes will light up. He’ll talk to you for hours. It’s only when talking about fighting that he tends to clam up, and that has impacted his marketability with fans.
I like Guida, both as a person and as a fighter. I think he’s great, and it’s easy to see why the fans love him. But there’s no way he’s beating Maynard here. Guida is a skilled fighter, but he’s not on Maynard’s level when it comes to striking or wrestling.
The UFC is sacrificing a marketable, ready-made UFC title contender for one who won’t garner any interest from the fans for a third title shot. Joe Lauzon would have been a much more suitable opponent for Guida.
He’s coming off a loss and he presents less of a threat to Guida in the cage. The fact that Guida and Lauzon have never fought each other, despite spending years together in the UFC, makes the bout even more interesting.
I’m all for treating MMA as a pure sport, but sometimes you have to make the right decision for business purposes.
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