(Careful Clay, all those fruity, sugary, woman drinks ironically go right to the hips.)
On the heels of a razor thin split decision loss to Gray Maynard at UFC on FX 4, his second loss to top tier competition in as many fights, it appears that everybody’s favorite energizer bunny/alcoholic, Clay Guida, will be dropping to featherweight for his next fight. Although no debut date or opponent have been decided as of this write up, Guida told MMAJunkie that he expects to make his featherweight debut sometime in early 2013.
Prior to his current two fight skid, Guida racked up four straight wins over such names as former PRIDE lightweight kingpin Takanori Gomi and former WEC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis among others, pulling in two Submission of the Night awards in the process and bringing his total award count to 7.
His most recent fight with Maynard was, at the risk of overusing the term, “Starnesian” to say the least — consisting of long periods of inactivity and avoidance (one which earned him a timidity warning from referee Dan Miragliotta) punctuated by the occasional combination — and was criticized by both the fans and Dana White, who declared the contest to be “a blowout for Maynard” and “not a fight” at all. Personally, I think Guida was simply protesting the decision that forced him to braid his hair, which was a goddamned travesty in every sense of the word. That being said, a good percentage of the viewing audience still scored the fight in favor of Guida, because denial is a powerful, powerful thing (insert vitriol filled “hack journalist”, “fool”, and “disgrace to MMA writers around the world” comments here). In either case, you have to imagine Guida will be looking to impress both the audience and his supreme overlord in his next bout.
Given that the featherweight division, not unlike most divisions, is still residing beneath an absent champion, Guida’s presence at 145 could cause a lot of waves in the title landscape. Now that Frankie Edgar has been left without a dance partner for his big debut, who would like to see him face Guida while Jose recovers from his joyriding accident?