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Why Clay Guida as the UFC Lightweight Champion Is Dana White’s Worst Nightmare

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 …

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.

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Clay Guida Doesn’t Deserve a Shot at the UFC Lightweight Title Just Yet

At “The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale” on Saturday evening in Las Vegas, Clay Guida outwrestled the flashy Anthony Pettis in taking a unanimous decision victory over the last WEC lightweight champion. It was by far the biggest win of Guida&rsq…

It was by far the biggest win of Guida’s career and immediately launched him into the upper echelon of the UFC’s stacked lightweight division.

In wake of the win, Guida told Joe Rogan he was ready for a title shot. Although Pettis was promised a shot at the 155-pound title by UFC president Dana White had he emerged from this fight victorious, the same pledge was never made to Guida.

Those who believe Guida deserves a title shot point to his recent four-fight win streak. They forget just who he has fought during those four victories.

Shannon Gugerty? A guy who has a sub-.500 record (2-3) in the UFC, and someone who only diehard fans have heard of. Yes, Guida did win the “Submission of the Night” award for his arm-triangle victory, but Gugerty is nothing special.

Rafael Dos Anjos? Another guy with a .500 record in the UFC (3-3). Although Guida looked fantastic in breaking Dos Anjos’ jaw in this fight, it’s not like the Brazilian is one of the best in the division.

Takanori Gomi? Aside from delivering a flash knockout to Tyson Griffin last summer, Gomi has looked nothing like the fighter who ran through PRIDE in his other octagon battles, losing by submission to Guida and Kenny Florian.

Don’t forget that before this recent streak Guida lost two fights in a row, a barn-burner to Diego Sanchez and a choke-out loss to the aforementioned Florian.

Even with his victory last night, Guida still only holds a 9-5 record in the UFC. And although his move to Greg Jackson’s camp has clearly rejuvenated his career, one cannot forget his overall body of work in the Octagon when considering how worthy he is of a title shot.

Guida is definitely an exciting fighter. He pushes an unrelenting pace through his fights, has some of the best cardio in the sport, sports a cast-iron chin, and has a likeable and unique personality. He’s fun to watch and root for.

To fight for the UFC gold, however, requires a sustained body of excellence, and Guida hasn’t demonstrated this just yet. If four wins in the span of a year earns one a title shot, like proponents of Guida believe, then what about Melvin Guillard?

Like Guida, Guillard has won four in a row and like Guida, Guillard’s fights are exciting to watch. He has also been in the UFC for what seems like forever, and even has a similar UFC record to Guida at 10-4. But you don’t hear fans clamoring for Guillard’s title shot.

Of course, there’s Jim Miller, he sports a 9-1 record inside the UFC including a current seven-fight win streak. It just doesn’t make sense for Guida to get a crack at the gold before Miller, especially considering Miller’s only two career losses have come at the hands of Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard, the top two guys in the division.

The easiest thing to do is to pull Miller from his fight with Ben Henderson and set up a No. 1 contender showdown between he and Guida. Both of these guys are on the cusp of stardom but really need a victory over a consensus top-10 lightweight to firmly entrench their place in the division.

With Edgar and Maynard hopefully culminating their trilogy in the fall, the timing is right to hold a late-summer/fall tilt between Miller and Guida to determine who gets the next crack at the belt. The winner of that fight would without question be deserving of fighting for UFC gold.

Defeating Pettis is no doubt a massive feather in Guida’s cap. But it’s not enough for him to get a title shot, at least not just yet.

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TUF 13 Finale Results: Was That Win Enough to Earn Clay Guida a Title Shot?

During last night’s finale of Season 13 of The Ultimate Fighter, Clay Guida grounded former WEC champ and Head Kicker Extraordinaire Anthony Pettis into the matt en route to a unanimous decision victory.Though Pettis looked respectable and may hav…

During last night’s finale of Season 13 of The Ultimate Fighter, Clay Guida grounded former WEC champ and Head Kicker Extraordinaire Anthony Pettis into the matt en route to a unanimous decision victory.

Though Pettis looked respectable and may have gotten the better of the striking exchanges, Guida’s takedowns, to the surprise of no one, were hard for Showtime to stop, and once on the ground, The Carpenter smothered all submission attempts.

Guida (29-11) has historically been considered a gatekeeper, even something of a lovable loser, in the UFC’s lightweight division. Always a fanbase darling, Guida was well known for repeatedly earning Fight of the Night honors in losing performances to top contenders.

But that may now be changing.

After joining Greg Jackson’s submission wrestling camp, things have seemed to snap into place for Guida, who is 4-1 since hooking up with Jackson. Jackson’s expert eye (especially for all things ground game) have apparently closed a lot of loopholes in The Carpenter’s game. And after defeating a highly regarded champion in Pettis, Guida is that much closer to his long-pursued shot at a UFC title.

So was that enough to earn him the winner of Gray Maynard vs. Frankie Edgar III? It got him close, but the answer is probably no. Or, at least a not yet.

One man still stands between Guida and his shot at the belt. His name is Jim Miller.

Guida is riding an impressive four-fight win streak, but Miller has won his last seven. Moreover, Miller’s only losses have come against the division’s No. 1 and 1a, Edgar and Maynard.

If Miller, like Guida a superb wrestler, can take care of business against Ben Henderson on Aug. 14, Guida should have his title eliminator. Since Maynard vs. Edgar will not happen until fall at the earliest, it looks like Guida will be cooling his heels for a while (at least if he plays it smart). And he deserves it.

We’ll see soon enough how the new and improved Guida handles cream-of-the-crop competition.

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TUF 13 Finale Results: Clay Guida Finally Has What It Takes to Win a UFC Title

On Saturday night, Clay Guida executed his game plan to perfection, took down a superior striker in Anthony Pettis and held him off long enough to win a decision. Some fans called it lay and pray and said it made a promising fight extremely boring.Othe…

On Saturday night, Clay Guida executed his game plan to perfection, took down a superior striker in Anthony Pettis and held him off long enough to win a decision.

Some fans called it lay and pray and said it made a promising fight extremely boring.

Others said it was the perfect way to shut down a fighter like Pettis, and that the constant submission attempts from Pettis on the bottom made it impossible for Guida to try and mount any offense of his own.

Obviously, there are two sides to every argument, but the one thing that tonight showed us is that Guida has become a serious contender for UFC gold.

Dana White has constantly told us that styles make fights, and if we believe him, then you have to believe that Guida’s style makes him a tough matchup for anyone in the division.

The dream skill set for Guida, a wrestler who likes to grind out opponents, comes down to three things.

Relentless pressure and cardio.
The ability to stifle submissions from the fighter on bottom.
An iron chin to prevent you from getting caught on the way in for a takedown.

Guida exhibited once again that he has the best cardio in the sport, going full speed at Pettis for 15 minutes and showing his submission defense has improved dramatically since joining Greg Jackson’s camp in late 2009.

On top of that, Guida’s chin has never come into question as he has never been knocked out in 40 career bouts and has very rarely been rocked. His insane recovery after being kicked in the face by Diego Sanchez comes to mind when you think about how awesome his chin is.

The bottom line is that while Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard are both wrestlers who sit at the top of the division, Guida is a real threat to whichever one of them wins their title fight later this year.

Edgar was able to stuff a few of Maynard’s takedowns back at UFC 125, but he lost his only fight to Maynard back in 2008 by being held on his back for three rounds.

You have to wonder if Guida’s relentless pressure would eventually get to him in a five-round title fight, as it is unlikely that Edgar could finish Clay.

On the other side, Maynard has one of the best wrestling pedigrees in the sport but he showed that his cardio is a bit lacking when he tired out against Edgar back on New Year’s Day.

If Guida was able to avoid the big shot and put the pressure on Maynard for the first couple rounds, he could possibly steal a decision in the later rounds.

A few years ago, it would have been laughable to even suggest that Guida would even be able to get a title shot in the UFC, never mind actually wear the belt.

But it seems like Greg Jackson has turned Guida into a focused, energy driven machine, and it is quite possible that the TUF 13 finale was the beginning of the ‘Era of the Carpenter.’

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TUF 13 Finale Results: What Was the Most Important Happening at the Event?

Yet another season of The Ultimate Figher (or TUF as it is commonly abbreviated) is in the books; Tony Ferguson proved too much for Ramsey Nijem and was thus awarded the title of “the ultimate fighter” for the 13th season.It is worth noting that winnin…

Yet another season of The Ultimate Figher (or TUF as it is commonly abbreviated) is in the books; Tony Ferguson proved too much for Ramsey Nijem and was thus awarded the title of “the ultimate fighter” for the 13th season.

It is worth noting that winning TUF has become such an unimportant accomplishment that there is no longer any pomp and circumstance about the awarding of the glass TUF plaque. It was unceremoniously handed to Ferguson by commentator Joe Rogan.

The decline of TUF has been a topic that has been covered ad nauseam by the MMA media and will not be further discussed here. Besides, there was a fight that had far more importance than the fight between Ferguson and Nijem.

What was that fight? Clay Guida vs. Anthony Pettis.

The fight between Guida and Pettis was important for two reasons.

First, it determined who would be a future contender at lightweight and who was more likely to get a title shot next.

Second, it showed the superiority of the fighters in the UFC over their WEC counterparts.

Both of these aspects of the fight’s consequences are important in their own way.

It is important that Clay Guida become a future contender because he is more well known than Anthony Pettis—despite Pettis’ landing of the “showtime kick” against Ben Henderson—and is a more charismatic figure.

Simply put, Guida has had more time with the UFC’s vaunted hype machine and is therefore more well known. This will generate more pay-per-view buys in any title or No. 1 contender bout, certainly more than Pettis would have.

The second reason for Guida’s victory being the most positive part of the event is, admittedly, an issue of ego for the UFC. Had Pettis beaten Guida, it would have been proven that a fighter outside of the UFC was better than one inside the UFC (even though both fighters were under the Zuffa umbrella).

This would have damaged the UFC product and many UFC critics and keyboard warriors would use this to their advantage.

However, this wasn’t the case. Instead, the former WEC lightweight champion couldn’t beat a man who many considered at one time to be a permanent gatekeeper in Clay Guida.

What will wee see Guida do next? Fight the winner of Jim Miller vs. Ben Henderson? Maybe fight for the lightweight crown?

Either way, Guida doing either of these things will generate more attention and dollars than Pettis would have. This was the single most important thing to come from an otherwise severely underwhelming event.

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Joe Rogan Should Issue an Apology to Maggie Hendricks During the TUF 13 Finale

There’s been a healthy amount of debate raging in the wake of Rampage Jackson’s faux “motorboating” of MMA Heat’s Karyn Bryant. The classlessness of Rampage’s actions need no more ridicule. That point has been made. As of two days ago, however, t…

As of two days ago, however, there is now a second controversial issue that has come out of this incident. If you’ve been reading some of the MMA blogs out there like Cagepotato and Bloody Elbow, you’re certainly familiar with those sites calling out Joe Rogan for his poor choice of words to describe Yahoo Sports columnist Maggie Hendricks, after she was one of the many journalists to criticize Rampage for his actions.

Rogan’s disagreement with Hendricks’ call to the media to not give Rampage a platform to perform his stunts is an opinion he is entitled to. What was clearly not OK about his actions was his use of the now infamous C-word to describe her.

Rogan got roasted with enough heat from his comments on the MMA Underground forum that he issued a public apology yesterday to Hendricks for what he called her, now he should go a step further and issue a televised apology at some point when Spike is airing the main card.

This is bigger than Joe Rogan. MMA has been dancing around the edge of getting acceptance by the mainstream for years now, whether you consider that to be a network deal, a full nation of states sanctioning the sport, or your neighbor actually understanding that the sport is called mixed martial arts and not ultimate fighting.

If UFC employees, full-time or contracted freelancer’s, are allowed to get away with saying and doing things that in any major sport such as football, basketball, and baseball would warrant suspension’s and/or fines you can be sure the media, and subsequently the public, will be sure and brush it off as a sport not worthy of their time.

It’s a great thing that ESPN is covering MMA, but how long do you think they’ll want to be associated with a sport that’s king organization refuses to punish it’s employees for classless and crude actions and remarks don’t garner any punishing response?

Dana White and the UFC PR department are now on record as saying that “Joe Rogan is an independent contractor and he wrote his own opinion” thereby absolving them of the responsibility to take action. That stance is weak.

After Dana White, Joe Rogan is arguably the most recognizable face the UFC has. He hosts all the weigh-ins, gives insightful interviews in every hype video leading up to every event, and is arguably the best color commentator calling MMA today.

I honestly believe Rogan’s knowledge and ability to break down what is happening in a fight for the layman to understand has helped the UFC grow leaps and bounds. It’s the ability to take what appears to be a boring grappling match and describe intricately what each fighter is trying do within the fight. He is continuously two steps ahead of the action.

For all these reasons, Joe Rogan’s official title as “independent contractor” for the UFC is irrelevant. If he’s weighing in on anything MMA related, he’s doing so as a voice for the UFC, and the UFC knows that.

In any mainstream sport, athletes and commentators occasionally make mistakes, and apologies are issued. We, the people, demand it. Joe Rogan made a mistake. His actions don’t negate the possibility of the sport being accepted as a mainstream attraction, nor did he necessarily set that effort back.

Using his time on air tonight to issue a genuine apology for his words towards Maggie Hendricks would show that the UFC, and therefore MMA, is conscious of wrongdoing by its employees and will seek to rectify those wrongdoings using the correct avenues.

Continuous silence and denial of responsibility only proves those who want to stop the sport’s growth are doing the right thing.

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