The betting lines for The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale: Guida Vs. Pettis fight have been released and are showing Anthony Pettis as a (-165) favorite with Clay Guida as a (+135) dog. The famous “Showtime.
The betting lines for The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale: Guida Vs. Pettis fight have been released and are showing Anthony Pettis as a (-165) favorite with Clay Guida as a (+135) dog.
The famous “Showtime Kick” undoubtedly has impressed the line-makers over Guida’s latest 3 submissions win streak including his January 1st fight against Takanori Gomi, who Guida choked out in the second round. Pettis became nationally recognized with a Matrix-like kick that sealed him the WEC Championship belt, coming into the UFC. Pettis is currently on a 4 fight win streak, that Gray Maynard has dismissed by saying that save for Ben Henderson, Pettis has fought “scrubs.” This will be Pettis’ first fight in the UFC.
To bet on Clay Guida vs. Anthony Pettis, you may click on the icons to the online sports books in the Odds Side Bar to the right of our page or head here.
When the lights dim and the cameras roll on June 4, the MMA world will watch in unison as two of the most exciting lightweights do battle.
Ladies and gentleman, it’s showtime.
Former WEC lightweight champion Anthony “Showtime” Pettis will make his anti…
When the lights dim and the cameras roll on June 4, the MMA world will watch in unison as two of the most exciting lightweights do battle.
Ladies and gentleman, it’s showtime.
Former WEC lightweight champion Anthony “Showtime” Pettis will make his anticipated UFC debut in the main event of Saturday’s TUF 13 Finale card.
He’ll step right into the fire on the big stage against fan favorite and MMA wildman Clay Guida.
Those unfamiliar with Pettis are definitely in for a treat. He is one of the most creative strikers in the world, who seemingly has an affinity for pulling out insane highlight reel maneuvers.
Fans are still drooling over Pettis’ Matrix-like kick in his WEC championship bout against Ben Henderson. Along with making ESPN’s Sportscenter Top Ten, Pettis generated a massive following with his performance.
He was set to challenge the UFC lightweight champion in his debut, but with the January 2010 title bout between Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard ending in a draw, a monkey wrench was thrown into the UFC’s plans for the rising young star.
Instead of waiting around for Edgar and Maynard, Pettis decided to take an extremely risky bout against Guida.
Some fans were upset about the possibility of Pettis missing out on a promised title shot.
An example of a similar situation is UFC featherweight Josh Grispi, who was originally scheduled to be the first to challenge Jose Aldo for his newly-acquired UFC title.
After an injury forced Aldo to pull out of the January bout, Grispi decided to take a fight against Dustin Poirier and ended up blowing his featherweight title shot.
As for Pettis, he made a great decision in taking the bout against Guida. The rematch for Edgar and Maynard was set for UFC 130, but both lightweights have been sidelined with injuries.
If Pettis waited around for the title shot, he could’ve been out of action for at least a year.
Recently, there have been questions surrounding Pettis’ position in the lightweight division. With a division full of guys like Gilbert Melendez, Jim Miller and Melvin Guillard, the title picture can become clouded with uncertainty at times.
UFC President Dana White has already stated that Edgar versus Maynard is still on deck, and if Pettis gets past Guida, he remains at the forefront of the lightweight herd.
“It’s Pettis,” White said according to MMAWeekly when asked about the next person in line for a lightweight title shot.
June will be a big month for MMA, and a bout between Pettis and Guida is a hell of a way to get things started.
Filed under: UFCSandwiched between two UFC pay-per-views and at the start of the busiest stretch of the year in mixed martial arts, Saturday night’s Ultimate Fighter Finale is being somewhat overlooked by MMA fans.
Sandwiched between two UFC pay-per-views and at the start of the busiest stretch of the year in mixed martial arts, Saturday night’s Ultimate Fighter Finale is being somewhat overlooked by MMA fans.
But Clay Guida, who’s fighting Anthony Pettis in the main event on Saturday night, says any fan who misses it is going to miss what may be the single best MMA fight of 2011.
“It’s got fight of the night, fight of the year written all over it,” Guida said on The MMA Hour. “It’s going to be a fun fight for the fans and a fun fight for us.”
Although Guida’s bout with Pettis may be a brawl, he says it’s no grudge match. Guida said he likes Pettis personally and admires the way Pettis approaches the sport, constantly looking to improve himself and bringing new techniques into the cage every time he fights, as he did with his “Showtime Kick” in his last fight, a win over Ben Henderson.
“I’m a fan of his,” Guida said of Pettis. “I love watching him fight. He’s very exciting. He has a high pace. Every time he fights he’s coming up with different things. Besides the kick heard round the world he has lots of tricks in his bag.”
Learning new tricks is part of why Guida moved to New Mexico and began training with a new coach, Greg Jackson. Guida made a football analogy in explaining why he’s thrilled to be training at Jackson’s gym.
“Training with the best guys in the world is only going to improve your game,” Guida said. “Do you want to be coached by Vince Lombardi or Dave Wannstedt? Go to the best guys in the world and you’re going to be one of the best. The first week I was here I realized there’s nothing but hard working animals in the gym.”
If Guida beats Pettis, he might just become the next No. 1 contender in the UFC’s lightweight division — and possibly the next champion from Jackson’s gym. But Guida says he’s not focused on that.
“I’m focused on June 4,” Guida said, “and that’s all I’m thinking about.”
On June 4, 2011, the 13th season of the popular and long running Ultimate Fighting Championship reality TV show—The Ultimate Fighter—will officially come to a close with another live ‘Ultimate Finale’ event.In the main event, Anthony Pettis…
On June 4, 2011, the 13th season of the popular and long running Ultimate Fighting Championship reality TV show—The Ultimate Fighter—will officially come to a close with another live ‘Ultimate Finale’ event.
In the main event, Anthony Pettis is set to take on popular UFC lightweight journeyman Clay Guida.
All indications are that this will be an explosive bout between two entertaining Lightweights. But who has the advantage? What are both fighters risking in this fight? What will they gain if they win?
There’s something almost universal about an epic KO. Fans of Mixed Martial Arts like the sport for many reasons, reasons that sometimes divide them into groups: those that prefer the ground game over striking, those that prefer Japanese MMA rules…
There’s something almost universal about an epic KO. Fans of Mixed Martial Arts like the sport for many reasons, reasons that sometimes divide them into groups: those that prefer the ground game over striking, those that prefer Japanese MMA rules as opposed to America’s Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts, etc.
Occasionally, those groups argue with each other. But if there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s this: there’s almost nothing quite as amazing as an awesome KO.
And at least in my opinion, it’s tougher to knock someone out with a kick than with a single punch or even a barrage of punches. A perfect KO kick requires exact balance, precise timing, and deadly power.
So, with that in mind, I’d like to present six of my favorite kicks from all around the MMA world: from the Ultimate Fighting Championship to PRIDE Fighting Championships to World Extreme Cagefighting to DREAM. Let’s get started.
Filed under: UFCIn a way, Gray Maynard has some cause to be thankful that UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar pulled out of their scheduled title fight at UFC 130 this weekend.
Though Maynard told Ariel Helwani on Monday’s episode of The MMA Hour …
In a way, Gray Maynard has some cause to be thankful that UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar pulled out of their scheduled title fight at UFC 130 this weekend.
Though Maynard told Ariel Helwani on Monday’s episode of The MMA Hour that he would have been healthy enough to show up on fight night if Edgar hadn’t withdrawn with an injury first, the delay did give him the opportunity to address some lingering injury issues of his own.
“[It was] just some old stuff that I’ve been kind of going through for the last couple camps,” Maynard said. “I was like, well, this is for a title so I got to push through it. …Then Edgar pulled out and it was an opportunity to heal up, and I took that opportunity.”
For Maynard, that meant having arthroscopic surgery on his knee and giving his body some time to recover after several tough training camps had taken their toll. It also means most likely putting off his next shot at UFC gold until late summer or early fall, though Maynard said he would have toughed it out and fought this weekend if Edgar was still game.
“I would have had to,” he said. “It’s kind of like, if you’re going for the belt, you don’t pull out of a fight.”
You especially don’t pull out of a fight that was already nearly snatched away from you once. After fighting to a draw with Edgar at UFC 125 in January, Maynard was dismayed to hear UFC president Dana White announce that Edgar would move on with other title defenses, leaving Maynard behind despite the inconclusive result.
“I’m in this sport for one reason, and that’s to be at the top,” Maynard said. “The cash, all that stuff, it’s cool, but that’s not why I’m doing it. I’m not in it for that. I’m going to be the best. I want to be the best. I heard that, and you just don’t know what will happen. Will I have a chance again? If I do, it’ll take a long time. How am I going to change up things? You’ve just got all these emotions, and it’s hard to deal with. All your dreams and your goals, it could be gone.”
At least, that’s what he thought until White called to tell Maynard he’d had a change of heart.
“He called me and I was in my hotel room. I was just, you know, I didn’t know what I was going to do. And he called me and he said, ‘It’s f–king yours, kid.’ I think I almost cried, probably. I think I told him I loved him and it went quiet for a minute. Then he was like, ‘Well alright, get to work.'”
And while Maynard said he wasn’t aware of any offer to fight Anthony Pettis after Edgar’s injury withdrawal, he did elaborate on some of the headline-grabbing comments he made about the last reigning WEC lightweight champ.
In a previous interview Maynard had questioned Pettis’ credentials, suggesting that he hadn’t faced enough high-level competition to deserve a shot at a top UFC contender. Though it surprised some to hear the usually reserved Maynard speak so strongly about a fellow fighter, Maynard hardly seemed to realize that it was noteworthy at all.
“I don’t keep up with the news that much, and I remember I was doing probably like three or four interviews. Every interviewer, obviously trying to get things going, was like, ‘Well Anthony, he says that you don’t deserve the title.’ I thought, well, if we’re giving opinions here, then here’s my opinion. … I think Anthony’s a tough kid. He’s young. As for who he’s gone up against, a couple tough guys, but nobody proven, I guess.”
But don’t expect Maynard to make a habit of trash-talking other fighters or, for that matter, trying to get himself noticed on the internet. Even though the UFC is now offering financial incentives for fighters who master Twitter, Maynard remains a mostly passive user for the same reasons that he’s typically soft-spoken in interviews.
“You got everybody trying so hard to get out there, and I don’t know if it’s my attitude, but I don’t really give a f–k. …I’m just me, and that’s not me. These guys are acting like, I don’t know, you’re a gimmick. Do you want to be that or is it you? I don’t know. It’s a gimmick, I think, and it’s not me.”
As for the people – and there are plenty of them – who tell him he should adopt a more vibrant or controversial persona to hype fights? Well, let’s just say they’re probably wasting their breath on Maynard.
“98 percent of the people I talk to are like, ‘Man, you got to build this fight up. You got to do this.’ If the guy’s an a–hole then I’ll tell him he’s an a–hole. But if he’s not, then there’s nothing to talk about.”
Sandwiched between two UFC pay-per-views and at the start of the busiest stretch of the year in mixed martial arts, Saturday night’s Ultimate Fighter Finale is being somewhat overlooked by MMA fans.
In a way,