Bleacher Report’s Jason Schielke:
In the co-main event of the evening, the always exciting Clay Guida went up against Anthony Pettis, the last WEC lightweight champion.
The fight began with Guida using is “jumping all over the place” thing that he started using in his fight against Takanori Gomi. When he did pause for a moment, Pettis went for a head kick that just missed the mark.
Pettis threw another kick, and Guida caught it and took the fight to the mat. As soon as the fight hit the floor, Pettis worked on locking up Guida’s wrist, and looked for submissions off of his back. Guida landed a few nice punches when he had the chance to do so.
After Pettis was able to get back to his feet, Guida took him right back down and went back to work. Pettis threw up a piar of triangle attempts, but Guida was able to work his way out of them.
For the remainder of the round, Guida worked shoulder strikes until the horn sounded.
In the second round, Pettis started to work his hands and seemed relunctent to throw the leg kicks in fear of getting taken down. But, as always, Guida was able to get the fight to the ground.
With Pettis pressed up against the cage, Guida focused on improving his position instead of looking to dish out damage. As a result, Pettis was able to get back to his feet.
With two minutes left in the round, they were back standing and trading. Pettis threw a left high kick that barely missed, and followed that up with a jumping 360 back kick that just missed the mark. Then with just under a minute left in the round, Guida scored another takedown. Guida was able to avoid Pettis’ submission attempts and the horn possibly saved Guida from having to tap due to an armbar.
The last round started with both fighters landing some good punches. Guida landed a big overhand right, and followed up with a takedown.
Once again, Pettis was very active off his back, as he kept Guida tied up and consistantly looked or submissions.
With three minutes remaining, Guida was able to get in to half guard, and worked some shoulder strikes without having to worry about getting submitted.
Then with just under two minutes left in the fight, Pettis was able to work his way back to his feet. Then as Guida went for a takedown, Pettis was able to reverse and landed on Guida’s back.
Then from out of nowhere, Guida excaped out the back door, got Pettis’ back, and the fight was over.
The official decision—Clay Guida def. Anthony Pettis via unanimous decision (30-27 X 3)