Last weekend, the UFC completed another first for its promotion: hosting two events on consecutive days. UFC on FX 4 was held on Friday, June 22, while UFC 147 was held the following day, June 23. UFC 147 was combined with the first ever TUF Brazil finale as well. This made for one busy and historical weekend for the UFC.
As with all sporting events, controversy is bound to ensue. The main bout at UFC on FX 4 between Clay Guida and Gray Maynard was expected to be explosive, dynamic, and quite frankly, an all out war. Unfortunately, it turned out to be quite the opposite. The bout primarily consisted of an unusual game plan by Clay Guida, in which he practically ran away from Gray Maynard. UFC referee Dan Miragliotta even gave him a warning in the fifth round of the fight for running away and not engaging in the bout. During the fight, chants ringing out “GUIDA, GUIDA” progressively changed to “MAYNARD, MAYNARD” with the end of the fight leading to Clay Guida getting booed out of the octagon. Dana White even stated that the fight sucked, and he was booing Guida’s ridiculous game plan as well.
The first thing that came to mind after watching the fight was that someone obviously had to suggest this game plan to Guida. And shortly after, I realized someone did. I don’t know why no one has stated the connection, but the fact that Greg Jackson is Clay Guida’s coach is the only thing I could think about. Going back to another unsatisfied main event at UFC 143, a controversial win was handed to Carlos Condit after implementing a very similar game plan as Clay Guida. While Condit did a much better job of combining offense with his game plan of seemingly running away, the concept is the same. And Condit’s head coach is none other than Grag Jackson. After Condit’s win, he stated that the game plan was put together by his coaching staff and that he felt he had implemented and stuck to it throughout the fight. That he did, leading to many angry fans. Which leads to my burning question, does Greg Jackson tell his fighters to implement this type of a game plan when matched up with a notorious striker? I never thought I’d be comparing Gray Maynard to Nick Diaz, but beside the similar situation they found themselves in with their opponent, Maynard displayed some Diaz rage in the octagon during his frustration in the fight.
While the UFC has been reforming and improving the sport to become main stream, fights like these push new fan prospects away from the sport. New fans expect to see the all out brawls that MMA fans talk about when they watch the sport, and while lack luster performances like this do happen, it isn’t convincing to new viewers. Even avid MMA fans get disgusted with performances like this one.
Clay Guida’s performance also created a rather boring win for Gray Maynard, who simply won by chasing his opponent. Some fans argue, however, that while Guida had an extremely lackluster performance, that he deserved to walk out with the ‘W’ because Gray Maynard failed to do significant damage as well. Dissatisfaction aside, a fighter doesn’t necessarily deserve a win simply because his opponent isn’t fighting. However, I do feel that Maynard did deserve the decision in this case. While his frustration was quite obvious throughout the fight, he eventually found his range and began to decipher the puzzle of Clay Guida. In comparison, while I was upset by the way Condit fought at UFC 143, I felt he had complete octagon control by dodging in and out and landing strikes in the process. While I feel like a fighter shouldn’t perform as stated in a fight, his performance at least deserved a win. Clay Guida’s performance, on the other hand, in my opinion, had no element of getting the decision victory. He had no control of the octagon, displayed little aggressiveness, and failed to implement any significant damage. Whether you agree or disagree with the judge’s decision to crown Maynard the winner, you can’t argue that this fight was disappointing, and failed to live up to its hype. We can only hope that both fighters come back stronger, and Guida hopefully comes back with a better game plan.
By: Emily Kapala