Despite beating former No. 1 contender Anthony Pettis, Clay Guida will still have to wait in line for a lightweight title shot. UFC President Dana White told MMAfighting that Jim Miller (20-2) is ahead of Guida in the divisional rankings despite his wi…
Despite beating former No. 1 contender Anthony Pettis, Clay Guida will still have to wait in line for a lightweight title shot.
Miller is currently riding a seven-fight win streak. The only two loses in his career have come to current lightweight champ Frankie Edgar and Grey Maynard.
For months now Miller has been trying to plead his case for a title shot. Maybe he’ll get his wish sooner than later.
Many may feel Guida deserves the title shot since he beat the No. 1 contender. On the other hand despite being taken down over and over, Pettis was able to fight off of his back, nearly putting Guida in submission holds multiple times.
Miller can make his case even stronger if he is able to get past former WEC lightweight champion Ben Henderson at UFC Live Lytle vs. Hardy in August.
Because it is unknown when exactly the championship bout between Edgar and Maynard will take place, a possible bout between Guida and the winner of Miller vs. Henderson could determine who the No. 1 contender really is.
As usual, Guida was hopping around the cage like a rabid, mutant bunny cheetah. He darts in and out to keep his opponent off balance, then swoops in for the takedown when they give him the smallest of openings.From the top position Guida kept his energ…
As usual, Guida was hopping around the cage like a rabid, mutant bunny cheetah. He darts in and out to keep his opponent off balance, then swoops in for the takedown when they give him the smallest of openings.
From the top position Guida kept his energy high by squirming all around, but mostly out of an effort to avoid being submitted rather than advance position or deal damage.
Clay Guida did exactly what he wanted to do by grinding out a victory over Anthony Pettis.
Pettis was dangerous off his back throughout the fight, stifling any potential offense from Guida, but the top control and takedowns was enough to earn Guida the decision.
It was frustrating for Pettis, but when facing an opponent like Guida, the tools you bring to a fight against a normal man are just not going to work.
Against a grinder with the pace of Guida, one needs strong wrestling and maybe a bit of luck to find some openings of their own.
Does this mean that Guida is now ready to fight the division’s top dogs and challenge for the belt?
It most certainly does.
But guys like Frankie Edgar, Gray Maynard and Jim Miller are tremendous wrestlers themselves.
Clay Guida effectively shut down Anthony Pettis last night adding some shock to the TUF 13 results. Guida has long been a staple of the UFC lightweight division, and with 40 fights under his belt is someone many should be taking seriously. After …
Clay Guida effectively shut down Anthony Pettis last night adding some shock to the TUF 13 results.
Guida has long been a staple of the UFC lightweight division, and with 40 fights under his belt is someone many should be taking seriously. After watching how much he dominated Pettis and avoiding the great guard of Pettis, Clay Guida has put himself on a run for the UFC lightweight title.
With the title holder not to be determined until early fall, Guida has a while to go before he can claim the title anyway. Guida could easily benefit from one more win and show UFC president, Dana White, that even though some considered him a gatekeeper, that he is in fact a title contender.
So who should Guida, considered one of the most entertaining fighters in the UFC, face to get within range for a shot at the UFC title?
With the Ultimate FIghter 13 Finale now finished, the landscape of the lightweight division has changed dramatically.Grinding his way to a decision win, Clay Guida halted the ascent of former WEC Lightweight champion Anthony Pettis. Guida took down “Sh…
With the Ultimate FIghter 13 Finale now finished, the landscape of the lightweight division has changed dramatically.
Grinding his way to a decision win, Clay Guida halted the ascent of former WEC Lightweight champion Anthony Pettis. Guida took down “Showtime” numerous times and kept a seemingly dominant position for all three rounds, leading to a unanimous decision victory.
“The Carpenter” is now another win closer to a shot at the title and has risen through the ranks of the UFC’s lightweights. Here’s how last night’s contestants stack up against the top 10 lightweights in the UFC.
Pettis, and his hopes at a title shot, come crashing down (pic: MMAFightNews.net)
Judging from the sparse commentary throughout last night’s live blog, most of you were out sipping $20 Manhattans and discussing the latest issue of The New Yorker while a few of us sat on the couch watching free cage fights and loathing ourselves. It’s cool. You know what you did was wrong, and you came back home to us. We forgive you, and we’ll give you the gist of what went down.
It only took three minutes and fifty four seconds to send ten weeks of buildup crashing to the mat. The bout between Tony Ferguson and Ramsey Nijem was competitive, with both men finding a home for their hands, but Ferguson was able to employ his collegiate wrestling experience and the time spent with Lesnar’s camp after the show to dictate the fight and set the pace. Following a couple of successful takedowns, Ferguson flipped Ramsey’s switch with a left hook and Season 13 of The Ultimate Fighter crowned its asshole champion.
Pettis, and his hopes at a title shot, come crashing down (pic: MMAFightNews.net)
Judging from the sparse commentary throughout last night’s live blog, most of you were out sipping $20 Manhattans and discussing the latest issue of The New Yorker while a few of us sat on the couch watching free cage fights and loathing ourselves. It’s cool. You know what you did was wrong, and you came back home to us. We forgive you, and we’ll give you the gist of what went down.
It only took three minutes and fifty four seconds to send ten weeks of buildup crashing to the mat. The bout between Tony Ferguson and Ramsey Nijem was competitive, with both men finding a home for their hands, but Ferguson was able to employ his collegiate wrestling experience and the time spent with Lesnar’s camp after the show to dictate the fight and set the pace. Following a couple of successful takedowns, Ferguson flipped Ramsey’s switch with a left hook and Season 13 of The Ultimate Fighter crowned its asshole champion.
About 10 seasons ago that would have meant something, perhaps that a new player had arrived in the Welterweight division, but these days it just means that the TUF champ was simply the best fighter in the house, and that’s assuming that the best fighter didn’t succumb to injury during the hectic fight schedule. The legendary “six figure contract” carries little guarantee of future employment, but at least Ferguson left with the $40k “Knock Out of the Night” bonus in his pocket. So where does Ferguson go from here? In true Ultimate Fighter fashion, he said a drop in weight class is likely in his future. Then again, he also called out fellow TUF champion and resident UFC hipster Amir Sadollah, so who knows.
In the “co-main event”, Clay Guida was able to take Anthony Pettis off of his feet and reduce his highlight-reel style to a few momentary bursts of gif-worthy brilliance. Pettis took a major gamble in accepting this fight, preferring to stay active and risk losing his title shot rather than sitting idly by and waiting for a turn that may never come. It’s hard to imagine a fight so active resulting in so little damage. Guida used his strong wrestling base to put Pettis on his back each and every round, but it was all he could do to avoid the constant submission threats of Showtime’s active guard. Guida’s major offensive weapon, outside of his takedowns, came in the form of shoulder strikes from the guard and half guard while pressed against the cage. It was enough to secure the decision from the judges, but not enough to earn him the title shot that would have gone to a victorious Pettis. Dana White said post-fight that Guida is still behind Jim Miller in line for a shot at the belt. In short, Pettis will need to work on his wrestling to flourish in the UFC’s lightweight division, and Guida still needs to work on everything else.
In other action…
Ed Herman turned the longest layoff into the evening’s quickest win with his 48-second TKO of Tim Credeur. It was an exciting and much-needed win for “Short Fuse”, but with both men coming off of two year absences it tells us little about how he’ll fair against other competition or how he’s recovered from multiple knee surgeries.
My how far Josh Grispi has fallen. Once lined up to challenge Jose Aldo for his belt, “The Fluke” has now lost both of his matches in the UFC. George Roop also came into the bout 0-1 in the UFC, but he looked solid last night in his return to the win column.
The evening’s “Fight of the Night” was a throwdown between Light Heavyweights Kyle Kingsbury and Fabio Maldonado. Kingsbury landed some big knees from the clinch, but ate more than his fair share of digging body shots for his effort. Kingsbury left the cage with his fourth consecutive UFC win and an eye that looked possessed by demons.
Danny Downes was outgunned on the feet, and Danny Downes was outgunned on the mat, but damn Danny Downes is tough. Downes took a beating and probably should have left the cage with a detached arm, but he hung in there for the long haul in what ended up serving as a showcase fight for Jeremy Stephens.
I wouldn’t expect to see much more out of the TUF Class of Season 13. The undercard bouts featuring the non-finalists didn’t give much reason to believe anyone will be making an impact in the UFC. Chris Cope did look improved, and you never really know who’s a diamond in the rough, but even the shallow end of the Welterweight pool may prove too deep for these guys to tread. For some, this may represent their first chance to train full time with a credible gym; they’d better make the most of the opportunity.
Last night couldn’t come fast enough for me. I was salivating at the chance to watch Anthony Pettis and Clay Guida mix it up at The Ultimate Fighter Finale 13. Everything was pointing towards the direction of not only a Fight of the Night bonus, but a …
Last night couldn’t come fast enough for me. I was salivating at the chance to watch Anthony Pettis and Clay Guida mix it up at The Ultimate Fighter Finale 13. Everything was pointing towards the direction of not only a Fight of the Night bonus, but a possible Fight of the Year award as well.
Pettis has shown time and time again that he has a penchant for pulling off exciting and surprising moves that leave people shaking their heads in amazement. From his head kick knockout of Danny Castillo, to his outwrestling Shane Roller at WEC 50, Pettis leaves no stones unturned when looking for ways to win.
He is as active a fighter as there is, and now that he was going to face off with the original Energizer Bunny of mixed martial arts Clay Guida, we thought these two were going to go nonstop for 15 minutes and leave the fans screaming in favor of five round nontitle fights.
Ever since fans got their first glimpse of Guida, they recognized his heart and his insatiable desire to compete. This is a man who could probably run a marathon after just finishing a grueling war inside the cage. Even with all of his desire and energy, Guida was still lacking an ability to finish his opponents; he would get them down and seemingly lie on top of them.
Some started calling him Lay Guida because of his lie-n-pray style. Don’t get me wrong. I am not someone who constantly complains when another fighter continuously takes his opponent down and inflicts little to no damage. As long as he is trying to land or improve his position, then it’s up to the fighter on the bottom to get back up.
Guida seemed as though he was trying his hardest to hurt his opponent or get into a better position instead of lying inside of their guard, but he wasn’t all that successful. Don’t get me wrong. He was giving it his all, and he wanted to do more—that can never be called into question.
Guida had his share of spectacular moments, such as his fights of the year with Tyson Griffin and Diego Sanchez, but it is my belief it was due more to the pressure put on by his opponents than it was his willingness to stand and trade with them. In his fight with Sanchez, he took a beating and even when he took Sanchez down, he did virtually nothing. In fact, Sanchez was far more active from the bottom than Guida was from the top.
Then Guida started training with Greg Jackson, and it was a like a light bulb went off in his head. He became more aggressive and in turn much more appealing. He won three straight fights all by stoppage against Shannon Gugerty, Rafael Dos Anjos and Takanori Gomi. Against Gomi, he looked like a true title contender. He was fighting to win instead of fighting not to lose.
Those fights combined with the excitement that Pettis brings to the cage each and every time out were reasons enough for fans to expect a war last night. Instead, we were treated to Guida reverting back to his pre-Jackson days, and doing what he had to do not to lose.
Even though he spent most of the fight on top of Pettis, it was Showtime who was looking for ways to finish the fight and land strikes from his back. He was far more active and was constantly looking for armbars and triangle chokes. One thing I do have to say about Guida is he showed excellent submission defense last night.
No one wants a champion who is going to fight the way Guida did last night. We are not asking these guys to risk losing every time out just to make us happy, but there has to be a happy medium. Fans felt Frankie Edgar was too boring until he showed his first victory over BJ Penn wasn’t a fluke, and then followed that up with a fantastic fight against Gray Maynard.
If I’m Dana White, my worst nightmare would be a UFC Lightweight Title bout with Guida and Maynard as the two participants. Both men have a history of smothering their opponents without doing much to finish them off. Maynard seemed to really open up against Edgar at UFC 125, but it’s still to be determined whether or not that was sign of things to come or just an aberration.
Guida is everything a champion is not. He is not very easy on the eyes. In fact, he looks like a caveman. His hair is unkempt and all over the place. He rambles on and on during his interviews making very little sense and has no problem belching or blowing his nose in front of the cameras. Not everyone has to be dapper like GSP, but a champion is expected to carry himself in a certain manner.
Is Guida the type of fighter White and Lorenzo Fertitta want leading the charge for one of their most exciting divisions? Is he the guy they want to send out on press junkets promoting the sport and trying to attract new fans? Absolutely not, which is why there will be plenty of sleepless nights for UFC management if Clay Guida ever becomes the UFC Lightweight Champion.
Despite beating former No. 1 contender Anthony Pettis, Clay Guida will still have to wait in line for a lightweight title shot.