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UFC on FX 4: Gray Maynard Will Put Clay Guida’s Title Hopes to Rest for Good

After suffering his first career loss to Frankie Edgar, UFC lightweight bruiser, Gray Maynard, returns to the Octagon on June 22nd after eight months to headline the UFC on FX 4 alongside Clay Guida. It’s a great headliner between two of the division’s…

After suffering his first career loss to Frankie Edgar, UFC lightweight bruiser, Gray Maynard, returns to the Octagon on June 22nd after eight months to headline the UFC on FX 4 alongside Clay Guida.

It’s a great headliner between two of the division’s most talented, exciting competitors.

But Gray Maynard is going to destroy Clay Guida. Here’s why.

The striking isn’t even close. Maynard has developed into a very good boxer, while Guida is pretty much the same elementary striker he was six years ago. Watch a Maynard fight from six years ago and the difference is night and day. Watch a Guida fight from the same time, and the only way you can tell the difference is video quality and the length of his hair.

Both guys come from a wrestling background. But Guida is a former high school wrestler with some junior college experience, while Maynard is a three time NCAA Division I All-American. Now, credentials alone don’t mean everything, but that’s a vast disparity in level of competition.

Still though, Guida has developed the sort of potent wrestling attack that works so well in MMA. He’s unrelenting. If he cannot get the takedown, he goes for it again, and again, and again. He’ll hang onto a leg until he does get it. When he can’t, he’s in trouble. Against Gray, he won’t get it.

Frankie Edgar was able to take Maynard down because his striking kept Maynard guessing. Guida will not enjoy that option.

This is a five rounder, but don’t expect fatigue to play a vital role. We’ve seen Maynard go five hard rounds. And Guida’s gas tank is the stuff of legends.

Guida will make a war out of it; he has a knack for that sort of thing. His chin is rock solid, so he’ll be able to absorb the beating he’s certain to receive. But he’ll simply be outclassed in just about every area of the fight. He does hold the jiu jitsu advantage, but that won’t mean much unless he can put Maynard on his back and keep him there.

Maynard will use crisp boxing to bust Guida up, and with his size, strength, and wrestling advantages he’ll be the one dictating where the fight takes place. That will take Guida completely out of his game, just as it did when he faced Ben Henderson.

Guida is a great fighter, definitely top-ten caliber, but he’s just not at that championship level. Maynard is, and that’s the difference.

This is probably Guida’s last run at a title shot, and it will not end happily for him.

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Kenny Florian: Where Does He Rank Among the Lightweight Greats?

Perennial title contender and fan favorite Kenny Florian retired from the sport of MMA last week after battling back pain for most of his career. Kenny had attained a MMA record of 14-6, competing for the great majority of his career in the UFC since b…

Perennial title contender and fan favorite Kenny Florian retired from the sport of MMA last week after battling back pain for most of his career.

Kenny had attained a MMA record of 14-6, competing for the great majority of his career in the UFC since being a finalist on the inaugural season of The Ultimate Fighter.

Kenny is the only fighter in UFC history to ever compete in four different weight categories, going into the TUF house as a middleweight, then gradually working his way down to featherweight. Who knows, with a little more time, and perhaps the amputation of a limb, Kenny may have tried his hand in the new flyweight division.

He would earn himself title shots on three different occasions, coming up short every time.

But let that not tarnish the legacy of Florian. He was a great fighter, a great personality and continues to be—through his duties as a commentator—a great ambassador for the sport.

And let us not be unappreciative of the fact that Kenny looks more like an economics professor than a fighter. In an age of quantity over quality, tattoos and manufactured eccentricity, a guy who looks so unassuming but can whoop some serious tail is a refreshing sight.

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UFC on FX 3 Results: Has Charlie Brenneman Become Strictly a Gatekeeper?

Charlie Brenneman did what he had to do last night against Erick Silva. He fought through some strikes, fought through the boos of the crowd, and went for takedowns. He pushed Silva against the cage and tried to make it an ugly fight, at least for the …

He really had no other options though. Brenneman was outmatched, as he seems to be whenever he faces top competition.

His Rick Story win aside, Brenneman has never defeated a top competitor. And even that win has a little “what if” hovering over it because Story took the fight on very short notice.

This is in no way intended to denigrate Charlie Brenneman. He’s a very good fighter, and as tough as they come. But he just doesn’t have the skills to reach the next level.

At 31 years old, we’ve probably seen the best that Brenneman has to offer in the UFC. The Story fight was the pinnacle of his career, and with opponents getting better and better, that relegates him to gatekeeper status.

As dreaded as the “gatekeeper” tag may be, it’s not a label without some value. A fighter becomes a gatekeeper when it’s clear he’s peaked, and will not progress any further to the point where he’s considered, even by a stretch, a title contender.

Charlie Brenneman has reached that point.

You could argue that his UFC losses were to Johny Hendricks (potential title challenger), Anthony Johnson (light heavyweight futilely trying to stuff himself into a welterweight’s body), and Erick Silva (the next big thing). No shame in those losses. But that’s exactly what defines a gatekeeper—the consistent inability to defeat top level competition.

Too often “gatekeeper” is used as a pejorative term. Sometimes that’s the intended usage. Not here. Here, it’s simply a harsh reality.

Welterweight is a merciless category. MMAWeekly has Jon Fitch ranked at No. 7. When a fighter the quality of Fitch is No. 7, with a UFC record of 13-2-1, that makes it very difficult for a Charlie Brenneman, with a 4-3 UFC record to ever reach the pinnacle of such a division.

Of course, no fighter wants to accept this dreaded label. Every fighter wants to be a champion, and believes they can be. Becoming a gatekeeper means that dream is pretty much squashed. But eventually, practicality steps in. Being a gatekeeper makes a fighter a benchmark. It means they’re tough enough to validate a young lion like Erick Silva, and as difficult as that may be to accept, it is what it is.

That may conflict with the ego of a professional athlete, understandably, but everyone has got to make a living. And a UFC gatekeeper can earn a decent living.

Charlie Brenneman is a gatekeeper. That doesn’t mean he’s no good. That doesn’t mean he’s done. It just means he’ll never be the UFC welterweight champion. And there’s nothing wrong with that. At the end of the day, he’s still earning a living doing what he loves to do.

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Brandon Vera: The Beneficiary of Kind Circumstance

Five years ago, UFC heavyweight sensation, Brandon Vera was the toast of the town. He was 4-0 in the UFC, with four brutal stoppages, and had just demolished former champion, Frank Mir. To say Vera’s star was on the rise would be a colossal under…

Five years ago, UFC heavyweight sensation, Brandon Vera was the toast of the town. He was 4-0 in the UFC, with four brutal stoppages, and had just demolished former champion, Frank Mir.

To say Vera’s star was on the rise would be a colossal understatement.

A couple of losses later, and the undersized heavyweight departed the land of gargantuan men for the light-heavyweight division; which is not always a wise move considering that category is populated by semi-gargantuan men who are also quick and athletic.

With that move Vera lost not only his speed advantage, but his confidence and aggression as well.

Just as quickly as he had risen to stardom, he fell out of the sky.

Sure, Vera beat the guys he was supposed to beat, but he fell short against top competition. It was a fight against Thiago Silva that really put a bizarre cherry on top of his stunning descent.

Very was cut after posting three straight losses. But in a peculiar twist, Silva would go on to fail a drug test. He submitted a urinalysis that wasn’t human, and was fined and suspended.

Vera’s loss was changed to a No-Contest by the Nevada State Athletic Commission and he was given another chance in the UFC.

He made the most of it by defeating Eliot Marshall in unimpressive fashion–again a guy he was supposed to beat.

Nothing wrong with that. A ‘W’ is a ‘W.’ And normally that would get him another fight against mid-level competition on the undercard. But due to a surprising series of circumstances, Vera will now face former light-heavyweight champion, Shogun Rua in the main event on the UFC on FOX 4.

Not a bad turn of events for a guy who was unemployed just a year ago.

This is Vera’s chance to get back on track.

Shogun is a rough night out for anyone not named “Bones,” but even just a good showing by Vera could get his name back into the general mixed martial arts discourse.

As much as MMA is an unforgiving sport, it’s also a sport where second, even third chances happen all the time. Sure, a fighter can suffer an injury that shelves him for a year. No fight, no pay. But one man’s misfortune is another man’s gain.

It’s because of the UFC’s latest injury bug, which in this particular case claimed Michael Bisping and Brian Stann, that Vera is in this position.

The circumstances that brought him to this place have been happenstance. The rest is up to Vera.

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Alistair Overeem: 5 Fights for Him to Take Upon His Return

When Alistair Overeem returns from serving out his sentence for failing a drug test, his first fight back could be contingent on fan reception and organizational forgiveness.If Dana White finds himself in a charitable mood, maybe he’ll throw Over…

When Alistair Overeem returns from serving out his sentence for failing a drug test, his first fight back could be contingent on fan reception and organizational forgiveness.

If Dana White finds himself in a charitable mood, maybe he’ll throw Overeem a meatball to kick around. Nothing erases the stain of a hot urinalysis better than a devastating knockout victory.

However, if Uncle Dana is still perturbed that Overeem lied to his face and ruined a huge title fight, then he could end up throwing Overeem to a wolf.

Here are five great fights for the bruising Dutchman when he returns.

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Tito vs. Forrest or Wandy vs. Franklin: Which Is the More Useless Rematch?

Rematches are put together for a variety of reasons: A super close fight requires a do-over. A bad decision where one fighter clearly gets robbed is also a good reason. Sometimes injuries plague a card and sheer necessity takes over. And sometimes it’s…

The latter two reasons come into play when discussing Tito Ortiz vs. Forrest Griffin and Wanderlei Silva vs. Rich Franklin.

In the case of Wandy and Franklin, necessity took over. Originally scheduled to be Wandy vs. Vitor Belfort, the bout took a hit when Vitor went down with a hand injury. The two had coached opposite one another on The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil, and were to have a rematch of their 1998 fight, which saw Vitor starch Wandy in only 44 seconds.

Rich Franklin, the consummate company man who was scheduled to face Cung Le, didn’t hesitate when the UFC called him to step up, yet again, to save the day. He’ll now face Silva in a rematch of their 2009 catchweight fight that Franklin won by unanimous decision.

It’s not that it’s a bad fight. The first one was an entertaining affair that won Fight of the Night honors. It’s just that it’s a pointless fight, especially as the main event.

It’s being contested at a catchweight, again, which doesn’t exactly help its lack of validity. It simply has no divisional relevance, which should be the first consideration of any non-title main event.

Tito vs. Forrest is actually a rubber match. Tito took the first one back in 2006, and Forrest took the next one three years later. Both wins were split decisions.

If you weren’t privy to the fine print you might think this makes for a fine narrative for a trilogy.

Not so much.

This is Tito’s retirement fight, or so he’s announced. Declaring a retirement before a fight immediately renders that fight meaningless because it matters nil who wins or loses. It’s a move born out of financial gain—the logic being more people will be compelled to buy knowing it’s Tito’s last fight.

And that’s fine. Tito is a legend of the sport. Certainly he’s earned the right to dictate how he goes out. But that doesn’t make the fight any more meaningful.

Forrest, well, he just doesn’t seem too interested in fighting anymore.

Still though, it’s a decent scrap that’s occupying the number three spot on a very stacked card, so it’s not like this one fight is carrying the event.

Wandy and Franklin are the main show on an extremely lackluster card that is criminally being offered as a pay-per-view.

Granted, the UFC deserves credit for finding a suitable replacement on such short notice. Injuries are common and something they have no control over. But with a co-main event of Fabricio Werdum vs. Mike Russow, this card is severely lacking in attraction.

For that fact alone, the Wandy vs. Franklin fight is hands down the more useless rematch.

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