Clay Guida
Fan favorite, UFC featherweight Clay ‘The Carpenter’ Guida (30-13) has been forced to withdraw from an upcoming UFC on FOX 7 bout with Chad ‘Money’ Mendes (13-1) due to an undisclosed injury.
The injury was confirmed by Sherdog.com on Friday after learning of the news from a “source close to the situation.”
No official announcement has come from UFC officials at time of writing. With just over a month before the scheduled fight date it’s likely that the promotion will find someone to replace Guida.
UFC on FOX 7 (aka UFC on Fox: Henderson vs. Melendez) is expected to take place on April 20, 2013 at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California. Headlining is UFC lightweight champ Bensen Henderson who gets set to welcome Strikeforce champ Gilbert Melendez to the Octagon.
Guida debuted at featherweight this past January by picking up a split decision victory against Hatsu Hioki at the UFC on FOX 6 show. The win ended a two-fight losing skid for ‘The Carpenter’ who lost a split decision to Gray Maynard as well as a decision to Henderson in a No. 1 contender bout in November 2011.
Mendes has won two-in-a-row since suffering the first pro-loss of his career, a knockout defeat to Jose Aldo at UFC 142 in a featherweight title bout. ‘Money’ has bounced back with two knockout finishes by stopping Cody McKenzie at UFC 148 and Yaotzin Meza at UFC on FX 6.