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The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale Results: Clay Guida Outwrestles Anthony Pettis

There is one word to describe Clay Guida’s style inside the Octagon: frenetic. Clay Guida used his frantic pace, constant movement and solid wrestling to stifle and confuse the last WEC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis. Guida was on the wi…

Guida was on the winning side of a 30-27 unanimous decision over the Duke Roufus student Pettis this Saturday night in the co-main event of the The Ultimate Fighter Season 13 finale.

Pettis’ last fight in the WEC was a career-defining moment for the young athlete as he captured the lightweight title from Ben Henderson just before the promotion was folded into the UFC.

More important than the title perhaps was “The Kick” landed by Pettis in the fifth and final round of the fight with Henderson. He cage walked and exploded with a right kick to the head of Henderson that knocked the champion down and sent shock waves around the world launching him to mixed martial arts super stardom at just 24 years old.

Pettis’s performance in his last WEC fight was enough to get him the UFC lightweight title shot against the winner of the second battle between Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard.

Unfortunately for Pettis, Edgar and Maynard fought a battle that is definitely in the running for fight of the year, but ended in a draw.

The Edgar vs. Maynard rematch was set, but Pettis didn’t want to sit and wait on the side lines, so the UFC offered veteran Clay Guida as Pettis’ welcome into the Octagon.

Although there is a ton of hype behind Pettis and at 24 years old the sky is the limit for this young fighter, Guida is certainly no slouch and showed us why.

Of course Pettis is known for his spectacular kicks and an extremely active guard, but the one thing Guida exposed tonight was the young man’s take-down defence.

Guda was successful on five of eight take-down attempts and spent the majority of all three rounds in top control.

Although Pettis took Guida’s back late in the third round and used a very active guard to look for submissions throughout the fight, Guida’s wrestling and submission defense were too much for Pettis to overcome.

Fans were still privy to some nice kicks from Pettis, one from the bottom as he was trying to make space to get back to his feet and a 360 spinning back kick; unfortunately for him neither of them did very much to slow Guida down.

Of course this was Pettis’ first fight in the UFC and they always say the first one is the toughest one. At 24 years old, he has plenty of time to go back to the drawing board and make the necessary adjustments to get back on track.

What was most impressive in this fight was Guida and the continued improvement he has shown over his last four fights.

It wasn’t very long ago that many people were writing Guida off as a gatekeeper who could grind out some big wins, but would ultimately lose when the competition stepped up. This was evidenced in back-to-back losses to Diego Sanchez and Kenny Florian.

Since then Guida has rattled off four straight victories including his win over Pettis. Three of his last four victories ended in submissions, one of them being a guillotine choke of former Pride champion Takanori Gomi.

Despite not looking like the most technically sound stand-up fighter, Guida makes up for it with his relentless pace and constant movement to keep his opponents off balance. As soon as Guida can get a hold of a leg, that’s where his grinding wrestler style shines through. Some may say grinders are boring, but at the pace Guida is going, that is a tough case to make.

Part of Guida’s evolution probably has a lot to do with being part of Greg Jackson’s camp as evidenced with almost every fighter that transitions to Jackson’s camp.

With a win over Pettis, the man touted to be the next lightweight contender and the four-fight win streak, Guida can’t be all that far out of title contention.

One would expect that with another solid victory over a top-ranked opponent such as Jim Miller or Ben Henderson that Guida will be fighting for the title.

No matter what the outcome for Guida in any fight, his motor is simply unmatched in the division and quite possibly all of the UFC. It will be interesting to see if that motor coupled with his strong wrestling can carry him and his long curly locks to UFC gold in 2011-2012.

Leon Horne has been contributing to Bleacher Report for three years now. He focuses mainly on mixed martial arts, but he has also written about tennis, football and hockey. Just send him a message if you want to talk sports or discuss any opportunities. You can follow him on Twitter for updates:

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UFC on Versus 4: Rick Story vs Nate Marquardt a Great Opportunity

MMA Junkie reported earlier today that UFC officials announced that Anthony Johnson was forced to withdraw from his June 26 bout with welterweight newcomer Nate Marquardt (31-10-2) for UFC on Versus 4. His replacement is UFC welterweight…

His replacement is UFC welterweight up and comer Rick Story (13-3).

There was no rest for Story after having beat Thiago Alves at UFC 130: Rampage vs Hamill this past weekend, he will be back in the Octagon in less than a month.

Story really controlled the action against an always dangerous Alves and despite the striking prowess of Alves he even got the better of Alves in some of the striking exchanges.

Marquardt is making his welterweight debut after struggling to put together the necessary win streak to build towards his second title shot in the division. Furthermore, he struggled in fights against the larger wrestlers of the division, namely Chael Sonnen and Yushin Okami.

With the drop to 170 pounds Marquardt will probably be one of the bigger welterweights in the division with the idea being that he will probably better be able to deal with the strong grapplers in the lighter weight class.

This is obviously a big chance for Marquardt to make a mark in his welterweight debut and quest for a title shot. However, nobody has more to gain in this fight than Story who has quietly positioned himself to being on the cusp of the upper echelons of the welterweight division.

Story lost in his UFC debut at UFC 99 to John Hathaway, but since then has rattled off six straight victories. In his last three fights he has put a damper on two fellow up and comers in Dustin Hazlett and Johnny Hendricks along with the victory over Alves as mentioned earlier.

A win over Marquardt definitely puts Story on the radar for title contention and would probably be one or two fights away from fighting for UFC gold.

Carlos Condit will be fighting Dong Hyun Kim on July 2 at UFC 132 and the winner of this fight might be the perfect follow up for the winner of Maquardt vs Story and a strong case for a title shot to the winner of that could be made.

Obviously Marquardt is no pushover in his own right, having 43 professional fights to his name and always being near the top of the middleweight division. That being said, Story is a pretty decent wrestler and despite lacking the technical striking prowess of the better strikers in the division he definitely tries to make up for it by keeping the pressure on.

Marquardt is a pretty technical striker himself and the question will be whether he is able to stay away from the wrestling of Story, if yes then one could probably expect Marquardt to get the knockout or out-point Story for the decision victory.

If Story can employ the game plan he implemented so effectively against Alves for his fight with Marquardt, he might be able to grind out another victory.

In any case the fight is an excellent opportunity for both fighters, despite being at different stages in their careers, both Story and Marquardt are working towards a title shot and a win for either fighter does a lot to get them closer to that goal.

Georges St-Pierre the current welterweight champion is taking on the the Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz in October at UFC 137.

Although Diaz maybe the underdog against St-Pierre, he is probably the most complete fighter St-Pierre has fought in a while and his aggressive nature in fights is something St-Pierre hasn’t seen from an opponent in a while.

Story is aggressive in his own right so if he does get to that title shot fans of the welterweight division will be privy to two title fights where the challengers bring the fight to the champion, something that hasn’t happened in a while at welterweight.

Marquardt is good friends with St-Pierre and should he win in a few weeks it will be interesting to see how that situation unfolds. Maybe this was part of the plan, have Marquardt move down and St-Pierre move up to middleweight for a super fight showdown with middleweight champion Anderson Silva.

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UFC 131: Shane Carwin vs Junior Dos Santos, Will Carwin’s Cardio Be Better?

Shane Carwin’s return to the Octagon to face Ultimate Fighter coach Junior Dos Santos for No. 1 heavyweight title contendership at UFC 131 this Saturday is almost one year after his last appearance in what was a tough loss to former UFC heavyweigh…

Carwin’s matchup with Dos Santos was a question of being in the right place at the right time. Lesnar coached opposite Dos Santos in the 13th installment of the The Ultimate Fighter, and he was scheduled to fight the Brazilian at UFC 131 in Vancouver.

Unfortunately for Lesnar and to the benefit of Carwin, the diverticulitis that kept Lesnar out for close to a year spanning 2009 and 2010 came back, and the former champ was forced to pull-out of his fight with Dos Santos and undergo surgery to correct the problem.

Carwin, already in training camp to fight UFC newcomer Jon-Olav Einemo at UFC 131, was the only credible candidate available to step in for Lesnar on short notice.

Carwin couldn’t have asked for a better scenario, and at 36 years of age, he needs a little bit of luck to help get him back to a title fight as soon as possible, seeing as how time is not on his side.

Talking about father time, one of the things that tends to happen as an athlete ages is their physical skills and abilities begin to erode until there comes a point that they can’t compete anymore.

Having rarely gone out of the first round or the first minute in a fight for that matter, Carwin’s body still has plenty of athleticism to compete with the best. However, in his loss to Lesnar last summer, Carwin looked a little too hard to finish in the first round, and the behemoth of a man seemed to have punched himself out.

At the end of Round 1, Lesnar got back up from a beating that lasted for close to four minutes of a five minute round and controlled the action until the close. At the start of Round 2, Carwin looked exhausted and it didn’t take long for Lesnar to put him on his back and work towards an arm triangle submission victory and second straight title defense.

Fans and media felt the reason Carwin lost was due to his apparent lack of cardiovascular fitness and that he would always be a fighter that has to look to finish early to win.

Carwin went through some surgery of his own this winter for severely pinched nerves in his neck and had some time to reinvent himself as well.

In episode four of Here We Go: Camp Carwin, Shane explains how he has changed his diet, lost 30 pounds, all the while maintaining his explosiveness and athleticism. The episode also claims that the camp has focused on improving his endurance in the Octagon.

Of course, cutting down on body fat percentage and eating a healthy diet is going to help one’s level of physical fitness; there is no disputing that fact.

However, something that seems to have been lost in the shuffle is that what happened to Carwin in the Lesnar fight wasn’t necessarily as much a question about Carwin’s cardiovascular fitness, but rather the expression of an underlying medical condition.

Carwin took to his twitter account after the Lesnar fight and explained that what he had was not a problem with his cardiovascular fitness per se, but actually the expression of a medical condition called lactic acidosis.

“What happened to me July 3rd is called ‘Lactic Acidosis’. It was brought on by a few things and mainly not breathing while exerting energy. I was all cramped up, nausea and major head ache.” Carwin tweeted shortly after the fight with Lesnar.

I am no medical expert and won’t go into the details, more information on the condition can be found at Medline Plus.

Interestingly, in the description of the condition one of the most common causes of onset is intense physical exercise, something a professional fighter is doing every time they compete.

Carwin did say that it was brought on mainly because he didn’t breath, and that may very well be the case, and improvements in his breathing rhythms along with his new diet and weight may be the key to success.

That being said, if lactic acidosis is something that has happened to Carwin in the past, it may happen again. One has to imagine that the longer a fight goes on at an intense pace the chances Carwin experiences the symptoms he experienced in the Lesnar fight probably increases drastically.

There is not doubting Dos Santos’ abilities, he is a great boxer and doesn’t give his opponents a chance to catch their breath (just ask Roy Nelson), so Carwin will probably be pushing the limits once again and it will be interesting to see whether his body locks up on him or not.

The fact that Carwin has only left Round 1 on one occasion over 13 fights, along with his tremendous knockout power, might mean the big man probably doesn’t have to worry too much.

Furthermore, if his cardio is as good as he says it is, then making sure he breaths properly and is patient with his punches might be enough to keep him from locking up against Dos Santos this Saturday Night.

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Brock Lesnar, Jon Jones and Company, Is Losing Main Events Part of the Game?

Within the last month the UFC has lost three main events and four of the fighters in those events due to injury or illness. Furthermore, if one looks back to this past February the main event between Rashad Evans and Mauri…

Within the last month the UFC has lost three main events and four of the fighters in those events due to injury or illness.

Furthermore, if one looks back to this past February the main event between Rashad Evans and Mauricio Rua was lost when Evans injured his knee.

Fortunately for the UFC, Jon Jones was able to step in on short notice and a new star was born when Jones took the light heavyweight title from Rua in dominating fashion.

Unfortunately situations like the one with Jones stepping in on short notice to face Rua aren’t the status quo when fighters have to pull out of a fight.

Often times the injured fighter is replaced by a fighter who maybe wasn’t the best fit, but was in the right place at the right time or the fight is cancelled all together.

The heavily anticipated rematch between Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard was put on hold when both fighters had to pull out citing injury and the UFC 130 main event will now be Quinton Jackson vs Matt Hamill.

An interesting fight no doubt, but there is no title on the line and Jackson vs Hamill is certainly not on the level of Edgar vs Maynard three.

The aforementioned Jones has been replaced by Phil Davis to fight Rashad Evans in the main event for UFC 133 and once again, fans will be deprived of a title fight, although there is still time to find a title fight between now and August 6.

The interesting story behind the Jones situation is that Evans and Jones used to be teammates who vowed never to fight one another until Jones changed his mind and then the bad blood started to boil over.

Now Davis vs. Evans is a great fight, but that hype train simply doesn’t have the steam of Jones vs. Evans.

Finally just last week it was announced in an emergency media conference call by UFC president Dana White and former UFC heavyweight champion and Ultimate Fighter 13 coach Brock Lesnar that Lesnar would have to pull out of his fight with Junior Dos Santos due to the recurrence of his diverticulitis.

Of course the UFC was quick to find a replacement for Dos Santos as former contender Shane Carwin was already training to welcome UFC newcomer John-Olav Einemo to the Octagon at UFC 131 in Vancouver.

Carwin is definitely worthy of the fight and with the knock out power between himself and Dos Santos, it should be an exciting fight to boot—perhaps more exiting than Lesnar vs. Dos Santos.

The only problem is that Carwin doesn’t have the drawing power of Lesnar and it simply renders the finale to season 13 of The Ultimate Fighter anti-climatic to say the least.

Obviously any time a fighter has to pull out of a fight it is a raw deal for everyone—the fans because they don’t get to see the fights they want, the promoter because they have to scramble to find a new fight and risk losing PPV buys, and finally, but most importantly the fighters.

Not only do the injured fighters lose out on a chance to make money come fight night, but many times they have to foot the medical bills to get back on their feet.

Luckily for the fighters, the UFC has just recently set up an insurance policy to take effect in June that will insure fighters for up to $50,000 for injuries outside of the Octagon.

All this to say, is it a surprise that the UFC has been losing a few main and co-main events here and there? Absolutely not, the UFC is putting on more shows than ever since the passing of UFC 100 and the more events being put on, the more chances that injuries and illness put them in Jeopardy.

This isn’t the first bad streak the UFC has had to go through in terms of losing fights due to fighters being forced to pull out.

Similar to how a lot of main events are falling by the way side after the UFC’s biggest event ever, UFC 129: St-Pierre vs. Shields, the same thing happened after what was probably the company’s second biggest event in history—UFC 100.

In the nine events following UFC 100, only one had a title fight headlining the card and four of the five UFC champions at the time were out nursing injuries.

Things eventually got back on track and in the spring and summer of 2010 the UFC was able to put on a string of stacked cards that had fans everywhere watering at the mouth.

The thing is when a lot of guys get injured and have to come back, it creates a log jam and often times what ends up happening is a slew of great fights once those guys start getting back into the fold.

In any case, mixed martial arts is a combat sport and it is often said that training is just as hard if not harder than the actual fight. So it doesn’t come as a surprise that guys get injured and are forced to sit out. The problem is, if fights start getting called off too often it begs the question: is the UFC overextending their roster?

A case could have been made that the UFC was overextending it’s roster post UFC 100, but that probably isn’t the case anymore as the UFC has taken measure to bulk up their roster over the last year and a half.

When the UFC absorbed the WEC in late 2010 it resulted in the additions of the the featherweight and bantamweight divisions to the promotion and with that two more titles to help sell their cards.

When Jon Fitch and BJ Penn were forced to pull out of UFC 132 with injury, we saw the pay-off of having the new divisions as Dominick Cruz vs. Urijah Faber for the bantamweight title should have no problem carrying the card.

Not a company to sit back on its laurels, Zuffa LLC, the parent company of the UFC, went out and purchased Strikeforce, one of the few remaining competitors to the MMA giant earlier this year.

With the purchase of Strikeforce Zuffa now owns the rights to a host of new fighters across the lightweight to heavyweight divisions.

Dana White has gone on the record stating that it remains “business as usual” over at Strikeforce and contracts will be honored. That being said, as soon as the UFC can start pulling from Strikeforce’s roster they will be able to further ensure that cards affected by injury or illness will be much easier to repair.

Of course, sometimes, it is just a case of bad timing and not much can be done to salvage the card. Injuries far out from fight night are easier to salvage then last minute pull outs, which most definitely was the case for UFC 130 as both Edgar and Maynard were forced to pull out just three weeks before the fight.

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