Anyone who saw the main event of UFC on FX 4 was not impressed, and UFC president Dana White was no exception.
“The fight sucked. I don’t know how to expand on it anymore,” White told MMAjunkie.com at the post-fight news conference. “… I don’t think that was a split decision at all. I think Gray Maynard won that fight easily. Nobody can win or lose a fight when the guy is running around in circles. He was literally running. I had some guys who are fans on Twitter saying, ‘Great footwork.’ This isn’t (expletive) ‘Dancing With the Stars.’ You can’t win a fight by running around in circles – that’s not how fights are won.”
Many fans and analysts alike believed the fight between Clay Guida and Gray Maynard would be an exciting, high-octane bout between two lightweight contenders.
Instead, Guida refused to engage with “The Bully” for five full rounds, leading to a very boring, and downright bizarre, fight at the Revel Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
White compared Guida’s strategy to the most notorious case of running away from an opponent in the history of the sport: Kalib Starnes’ UFC 83 loss to Nate Quarry.
As a matter of fact, White actually believes that Guida’s performance was worse.
“Because this was the main event, I think it was worse,” White said. “I’m sure I will (talk to Guida). I’m not his trainer. I’m not his coach. These guys come up with gameplans, whatever it is, but to make a guy like Clay Guida go out and fight like that—that was the gameplan?”
The video of White’s interview is available courtesy of MMAWeekly.
Despite the harsh criticism, Guida, a 16-fight UFC veteran, defended his performance in a post-fight interview with MMAjunkie.
“I think a little more movement and if I would’ve landed a few more strikes, I would’ve gotten the nod,” Guida said. “We stuck to the game plan. We were unpredictable. He’s a big, heavy puncher. The guy hits hard. The guy punches holes in walls for practice, I’m sure, and I didn’t want my head to be one of those. I thought we stuck to the game plan, we kept him guessing, we ran him out. He was swinging for the fences, and we weren’t there. … I felt good about my performance.”
After winning four fights between 2010 and 2011, Guida has now lost two in a row, including a title eliminator bout to Benson Henderson last November.
Meanwhile, Maynard finds his first win in nearly two years, after fighting then-lightweight champion Frankie Edgar to a draw at UFC 125 and then being knocked out by “The Answer” at UFC 136.
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