Tag: UFC on FX 4

Greg Jackson Attempts to Explain Guida’s Strategy but Gets It All Wrong

We’ve gone over Clay Guida’s baffling strategy from his UFC on FX 4 fight against Gray Maynard ad nauseum.The fight was terrible. Guida executed a strategy that not only cost him a fight, but also cost him many fans in the process.We’ve heard it all.Bu…

We’ve gone over Clay Guida‘s baffling strategy from his UFC on FX 4 fight against Gray Maynard ad nauseum.

The fight was terrible. Guida executed a strategy that not only cost him a fight, but also cost him many fans in the process.

We’ve heard it all.

But we haven’t heard much from Jackson, who was quickly and wrongly derided by fans for creating nothing but safe fighters and boring game plans.

That couldn’t be further from the truth, and it’s interesting that the fans making that claim willingly overlook Cub Swanson’s knockout-of-the-night-winning performance from earlier in the night. They’re also overlooking a history of exciting performances from Jackson-coached guys like Jon Jones and Brian Stann.

Jackson was asked his thoughts on the hatred being directed at Guida after the fight, and he attempted to explain his fighter’s mindset going into the bout to Sherdog.com:

In a lot of those fun, exciting fights, he ended up on the wrong side of those. He would get dropped or he’d get choked out a lot of times. You have to be able to fight the guy that’s in front of you, and Gray is an incredible fighter. … To just run at that guy and throw caution to the wind and hope you don’t get caught with a big punch and choked out again, it is a little silly. You do want to be able to try to do something that maybe favors you a little bit.

Now again, we should have engaged a little bit more, and that’s just the way the fight went down, but I’m never going to tell my guy, ‘Listen, this guy does everything better than you. I just want you to take all the damage you can until he gets tired of punching you in the face so that everybody’s jumping up and down and then maybe you’ll win, but maybe you’ll just get choked out.’ That doesn’t seem very smart to me at all. … I’m always going to be trying to do it smartly. It’s got to be an entertaining fight obviously, but at the same time you can’t just jump on somebody that’s stronger than you, that hits harder than you and has better wrestling than you do.

Jackson is right. Guida’s penchant for exciting, crowd-pleasing fights has cost him in the past. 

But there’s one thing Jackson is overlooking. Being the kind of fighter who sends the crowd into raptures while occasionally losing can actually help your career far more than being a boring fighter that consistently wins. 

Look at Jon Fitch. He’s an excellent fighter and has often been considered one of the best welterweights in the world. But he also has a nasty habit for putting on slow, grinding fights. He was given a world-title shot only because he’d put together a winning streak so vast that he couldn’t be denied.

And then, once he lost to Georges St-Pierre, he was sent to the back of the line. Fitch will have an incredibly difficult time ever getting another title shot unless he puts together a massive winning streak, and it’s all due to his style.

Conversely, take a look at Dan Hardy. The guy lost four fights in a row and still wasn’t cut from the roster. Why? Because he puts on exciting fights every time he goes in the cage, the Anthony Johnson bout notwithstanding. 

Chan Sung Jung is another example. He lost his final two fights in the WEC, but after stringing together three consecutive wins in the UFC, he’s being seriously considered for a title shot, and it’s all due to his exciting style.

This sport is about winning fights, yes. That should be the goal of every fighter who goes in the cage.

But it’s also about entertaining the fans, about giving them something to remember you by and making them want to tune in when you fight. When you do that, you help the UFC’s bottom line. And when you help the UFC’s bottom line, the UFC helps you by giving you a ton of exposure and pushing your career to new heights. 

There’s a fine balance to be struck here, and it’s not an easy thing to juggle. 

Guida can’t go into the cage and lose fights because he’s trying to be—above all else—an entertaining fighter. But he also can’t utilize the kind of game plans he executed in the Maynard bout and expect to receive the same kind of support from the UFC that he’s enjoyed in the past.

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Hatsu Hioki Turns Down Title Shot vs. Jose Aldo

Honestly, if you are in a business like professional fighting, you know you are going to get a lot of bumps and bruises along the way. You have to accept the challenges given to you,.

Honestly, if you are in a business like professional fighting, you know you are going to get a lot of bumps and bruises along the way. You have to accept the challenges given to you, and try to overcome the hardships to reign as the best. This is not the way Hatsu Hioki apparently sees his professional career. He is the top-ranked Japanese fighter in the world, a well-traveled athlete, and was 2-0 in the octagon. In the featherweight division of the UFC, Jose Aldo is undoubtedly one of the greatest mma fighters in the world. He is a tough contender, so it is understandable for any man to be distressed to even stand by him, let alone fight with him in the octagon. Unless of course that is your professional career.

So goes the story for Hioki who turned down a title shot with Aldo in April. Apparently, he truly felt like he was not ready to fight the champion. He believed he needed more octagon time, and more experience in the cage to put on the best performance for Aldo. Honestly though, all that would happen, best case scenario, would be Hioki would fight one or two top contenders in the featherweight division, beat them, and then once again have a chance to fight Aldo. It was an extremely poor decision on his part.

So he instead accepted a fight with Ricardo Lamas for UFC on FX 4. So on June 22 what happened? He lost. The idea of himself not being good enough to fight the champion now played into his mental game of fighting period. If you tell yourself you cannot win, you start to believe that you actually cannot win. I believe this was Hioki’s main downfall for his loss to Lamas. Maybe he truly wasn’t ready for a shot at the title, but as a professional athlete he never should have declined the offer. We can all remember in 2003 when Pete Spratt declined a title fight against then welterweight champion Matt Hughes. Now the title of refusing a title shot has been given to Hioki. If you are going to be in a business like professional mma fighting, you must always believe in yourself. This immensely improves your physical and mental game. Learn the lesson from Hioki: Always take a title shot when offered.

By: Elise Kapala

Clay Guida ran from Gray Maynard and his fans at UFC on FX 4

Last weekend, the UFC completed another first for its promotion: hosting two events on consecutive days. UFC on FX 4 was held on Friday, June 22, while UFC 147 was held the following day, June.

Last weekend, the UFC completed another first for its promotion: hosting two events on consecutive days. UFC on FX 4 was held on Friday, June 22, while UFC 147 was held the following day, June 23. UFC 147 was combined with the first ever TUF Brazil finale as well. This made for one busy and historical weekend for the UFC.

As with all sporting events, controversy is bound to ensue. The main bout at UFC on FX 4 between Clay Guida and Gray Maynard was expected to be explosive, dynamic, and quite frankly, an all out war. Unfortunately, it turned out to be quite the opposite. The bout primarily consisted of an unusual game plan by Clay Guida, in which he practically ran away from Gray Maynard. UFC referee Dan Miragliotta even gave him a warning in the fifth round of the fight for running away and not engaging in the bout. During the fight, chants ringing out “GUIDA, GUIDA” progressively changed to “MAYNARD, MAYNARD” with the end of the fight leading to Clay Guida getting booed out of the octagon. Dana White even stated that the fight sucked, and he was booing Guida’s ridiculous game plan as well.

The first thing that came to mind after watching the fight was that someone obviously had to suggest this game plan to Guida. And shortly after, I realized someone did. I don’t know why no one has stated the connection, but the fact that Greg Jackson is Clay Guida’s coach is the only thing I could think about. Going back to another unsatisfied main event at UFC 143, a controversial win was handed to Carlos Condit after implementing a very similar game plan as Clay Guida. While Condit did a much better job of combining offense with his game plan of seemingly running away, the concept is the same. And Condit’s head coach is none other than Grag Jackson. After Condit’s win, he stated that the game plan was put together by his coaching staff and that he felt he had implemented and stuck to it throughout the fight. That he did, leading to many angry fans. Which leads to my burning question, does Greg Jackson tell his fighters to implement this type of a game plan when matched up with a notorious striker? I never thought I’d be comparing Gray Maynard to Nick Diaz, but beside the similar situation they found themselves in with their opponent, Maynard displayed some Diaz rage in the octagon during his frustration in the fight.

While the UFC has been reforming and improving the sport to become main stream, fights like these push new fan prospects away from the sport. New fans expect to see the all out brawls that MMA fans talk about when they watch the sport, and while lack luster performances like this do happen, it isn’t convincing to new viewers. Even avid MMA fans get disgusted with performances like this one.

Clay Guida’s performance also created a rather boring win for Gray Maynard, who simply won by chasing his opponent. Some fans argue, however, that while Guida had an extremely lackluster performance, that he deserved to walk out with the ‘W’ because Gray Maynard failed to do significant damage as well. Dissatisfaction aside, a fighter doesn’t necessarily deserve a win simply because his opponent isn’t fighting. However, I do feel that Maynard did deserve the decision in this case. While his frustration was quite obvious throughout the fight, he eventually found his range and began to decipher the puzzle of Clay Guida. In comparison, while I was upset by the way Condit fought at UFC 143, I felt he had complete octagon control by dodging in and out and landing strikes in the process. While I feel like a fighter shouldn’t perform as stated in a fight, his performance at least deserved a win. Clay Guida’s performance, on the other hand, in my opinion, had no element of getting the decision victory. He had no control of the octagon, displayed little aggressiveness, and failed to implement any significant damage. Whether you agree or disagree with the judge’s decision to crown Maynard the winner, you can’t argue that this fight was disappointing, and failed to live up to its hype. We can only hope that both fighters come back stronger, and Guida hopefully comes back with a better game plan.

By: Emily Kapala

[VIDEO] Clay Guida and Gray Maynard Verbally Spar Backstage on Dana White’s UFC 147 Vlog


(Dan Miragliotta explains to Guida the maximum amount of miles allowed to run in the octagon without penalty.) 

After a brief hiatus, Dana White has returned with the daily dose of heartbreak that is the Danavlog to remind us all of the downsides of being a f*cking fighter. Thankfully, not all of us take the phrase as literally as Brazilians do. But the main lesson we took away from today’s episode is simple: what you don’t pay in gym fees, you will more than make up for in blood. Nick Catone, Joey Gambino, and Ross Pearson were just a few of the men to walk away from their bouts with some gruesome lacerations and another (or in Gambino’s case, a first) loss on their record. A tough day at the office indeed.

“Boring,” and “sucked” were just a couple of words that White used to describe the five round affair between Clay Guida and Gray Maynard, a sentiment that most fans seemed to agree with when all was said and done. And regardless of who you thought won that fight, you could probably understand a little bit of Gray’s frustration with the Steve Prefontainian conundrum that Guida brought to the octagon. This frustration became all the more apparent when the two met backstage, where some less than positive remarks were exchanged between the two camps. Oddly enough, it all began when Guida uncharacteristically complained about the judges decision, despite the fact that Napoleon was closer to conquering Russia than Guida ever was to finishing that fight, or even attempting to for that matter.

Video after the jump. 


(Dan Miragliotta explains to Guida the maximum amount of miles allowed to run in the octagon without penalty.) 

After a brief hiatus, Dana White has returned with the daily dose of heartbreak that is the Danavlog to remind us all of the downsides of being a f*cking fighter. Thankfully, not all of us take the phrase as literally as Brazilians do. But the main lesson we took away from today’s episode is simple: what you don’t pay in gym fees, you will more than make up for in blood. Nick Catone, Joey Gambino, and Ross Pearson were just a few of the men to walk away from their bouts with some gruesome lacerations and another (or in Gambino’s case, a first) loss on their record. A tough day at the office indeed.

“Boring,” and “sucked” were just a couple of words that White used to describe the five round affair between Clay Guida and Gray Maynard, a sentiment that most fans seemed to agree with when all was said and done. And regardless of who you thought won that fight, you could probably understand a little bit of Gray’s frustration with the Steve Prefontainian conundrum that Guida brought to the octagon. This frustration became all the more apparent when the two met backstage, where some less than positive remarks were exchanged between the two camps. Oddly enough, it all began when Guida uncharacteristically complained about the judges decision, despite the fact that Napoleon was closer to conquering Russia than Guida ever was to finishing that fight, or even attempting to for that matter.


(Things start to get interesting around the 8:26 mark.) 

I know this will earn me a lot of hate (then again, what doesn’t), but when you want to jab and jog your way to victory, as was obviously Guida’s plan going into last Friday’s fight, I can’t really empathize when the judges bite you in the ass for doing so. Relying on the judges to determine the correct outcome of a fight (especially one that was that close) is akin to career suicide in MMA considering their time-tested incompetence, so Guida has no one to blame but himself (and maybe Greg Jackson) for the inevitable result of doing so. I say this as a Guida fan.

Just check out the Fightmetric stats if you want to see how close of a fight this truly was.

Granted, Fightmetric results don’t often tell the whole story, but my God, talk about an abysmal efficiency rate. All of the rounds were decided by such a small difference that it would be hard to make the case that either fighter was clearly deserving of the judges nod. So basically, who you feel won the fight likely comes down to your view of the terms “aggression” and “octagon control.” I’ll give Guida this, he implemented a frustrating gameplan that Maynard had little to no answer for the first couple of rounds. As things progressed, however, Guida just fell short in terms of effectiveness. Let the cries of “TUF noob” and “incompetent jackass” begin.

–J. Jones

UFC 147 vs UFC on FX 4: Which Fight Card Won the Weekend?

Since the injury bug has ravaged many of this summer’s biggest MMA cards, Friday’s UFC on FX 4 and Saturday’s UFC 147 did not garner high hopes from critics prior to the bouts due to the fall off of some major stars.  But as this past weekend’s wa…

Since the injury bug has ravaged many of this summer’s biggest MMA cards, Friday’s UFC on FX 4 and Saturday’s UFC 147 did not garner high hopes from critics prior to the bouts due to the fall off of some major stars.  But as this past weekend’s warriors proved, a lack of high profile names does not mean a card can not be successful.

The FX card officially kicked off the UFC’s summer of fights and, for the most part, did not disappoint.

WEC crossover Cub Swanson emphatically got the main card started with his Knockout of the Night winning performance over Ross Pearson, while Brian Ebersole once again cartwheeled his way to a unanimous decision victory over TJ Waldburger.  However, it was veteran lightweights Sam Stout and Spencer Fisher who stole the show, as they added another exciting chapter to their long history by taking Fight of the Night in their third career meeting.

The night was soured, however, by the baffling main event.  Gray Maynard came into the night ready to leave it all on the line while Clay Guida seemed content running a marathon inside the Octagon.

Engaging less and less with Maynard as the fight went on, his fancy footwork may have put the former top contender off his game, but Guida’s strategy was more effective at pissing off the Atlantic City crowd than earning the victory.

And it is this lackluster main event that really cost the FX card the weekend.

In my opinion, the UFC on 147 main card, not including the main event, was filled with great matchups and talented Brazilian prospects, but failed to follow through with consistently exciting fights.  Fabricio Werdum was able to quickly finish Mike Russow, but the two The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil finals and the battle between Hacran Dias and Yuri Alcantara did not entirely meet expectations.

All three fights were good back-and-forth battles, but none ended in an exciting finish that fans have become accustomed to when watching top level Brazilian prospects.

What turned UFC 147 from a decent card into one of the more interesting ones of the year was the main event battle between former Pride champ Wanderlei Silva and former UFC champ Rich Franklin.  Continuing where they left off at UFC 99, these legends took it to another level as they put on one of the most exciting fights of the year.

“The Axe Murderer” was in rare form as fans were treated to a vintage performance that was nearly capped by a second round finish.  Franklin was equally as impressive and really showed why he’s a former champ by not only surviving Silva’s barrage but also by turning the tables in the third round.

Both men left it all in the Octagon, up until the last second, as they punched their way to the final bell.

This battle of wills not only stole the night, but the entire weekend.  Silva-Franklin washed away the bad taste left by the Guida-Maynard bout and proved that these aging veterans can still put on a show.

 

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The Unsupportable Opinion: Clay Guida Won That Fight


(And that’s for asking me how to save money on car insurance! / Pic Props: BRMMA Flickr)

By Jason Moles

Clay Guida won that fight. I know what the scorecards said; Bruce Buffer announced them to the world loud and clear. I know what everybody and their brother said on Twitter as well. None of that matters, though, because I know what I saw. Friday night in Atlantic City, Guida defeated Gray Maynard. In what parallel universe can you throw nearly a hundred more strikes than your opponent, he spends the evening swinging at ghosts, and they declare him the winner? On the mean streets of Albuquerque, New Mexico, if you have all but one of your fourteen takedowns stuffed, that does not make you a winner. That makes…not a winner.

Since when do we penalize fighters for not wanting to get smashed in the face? Guida willingly let himself be locked in a cage with “The Bully” for a total of twenty-five minutes. And yet somehow Maynard still wasn’t satisfied, saying at the post-fight press conference, “You can’t just go to the end of the cage and then back to the other end and back to the other end the whole time. You’ve got to give me a chance, too.”

“You’ve got to give me a chance, too?” Sorry, I thought Maynard was a professional fighter. I thought he was above the “If Johnny can’t hit off the pitcher, we’ll just bring out the tee” mentality. First, you don’t like his hair and now you don’t like the way he dances? If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were looking for a date to the prom. You had your chance and you blew it. Were you really expecting Clay to just stand in front of you like the striking dummies at the gym?


(And that’s for asking me how to save money on car insurance! / Pic Props: BRMMA Flickr)

By Jason Moles

Clay Guida won that fight. I know what the scorecards said; Bruce Buffer announced them to the world loud and clear. I know what everybody and their brother said on Twitter as well. None of that matters, though, because I know what I saw. Friday night in Atlantic City, Guida defeated Gray Maynard. In what parallel universe can you throw nearly a hundred more strikes than your opponent, he spends the evening swinging at ghosts, and they declare him the winner? On the mean streets of Albuquerque, New Mexico, if you have all but one of your fourteen takedowns stuffed, that does not make you a winner. That makes…not a winner.

Since when do we penalize fighters for not wanting to get smashed in the face? Guida willingly let himself be locked in a cage with “The Bully” for a total of twenty-five minutes. And yet somehow Maynard still wasn’t satisfied, saying at the post-fight press conference, “You can’t just go to the end of the cage and then back to the other end and back to the other end the whole time. You’ve got to give me a chance, too.”

“You’ve got to give me a chance, too?” Sorry, I thought Maynard was a professional fighter. I thought he was above the “If Johnny can’t hit off the pitcher, we’ll just bring out the tee” mentality. First, you don’t like his hair and now you don’t like the way he dances? If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were looking for a date to the prom. You had your chance and you blew it. Were you really expecting Clay to just stand in front of you like the striking dummies at the gym?

While many thought the actions of “The Carpenter” were egregious enough to warrant a PRIDE yellow card or even a point-deduction, let me point out that I didn’t see “The Bully” give much chase in an attempt to get his hands on Guida and implement his gameplan. It seemed rather, that Maynard was more content to just sit back and complain, flip the bird, cuss at Guida a little — something that in and of itself warranted a point deduction according to the Unified Rules of MMA — and then just sit back some more. Don’t even get me started on Maynard’s repeated hair-pulling. (Another point-deduction right there, if you’re keeping score.)

You see, gentlemen, what we witnessed at UFC on FX 4 was the epitome of Octagon control. In fact, Guida went above and beyond the norm, dominating not only the sponsor sticker in the center, but every square inch of the canvas. Additionally, Guida stuffed thirteen takedowns to keep the fight standing — a prime example of a fighter dictating the pace and location of a fight. Fighters must rely on judges being aware of this, and can only hope the imbeciles sitting cageside are able to recognize it when they see it and score the rounds accordingly. It’s not the first time the wrong fighter had his hand raised, and if life as an MMA fan has taught me anything over the past decade, it won’t be the last.

Clay Guida may not have been willing to become a punching bag for his opponent, nor should he have been. He was also not willing to go balls to the wall trying to take his opponent’s head off or put him to sleep on the mat, with a title shot potentially on the line. In a situation when most out-think the room, the Geico Caveman lookalike followed this popular maxim: Keep It Simple Stupid. Close the distance, get off a few clean shots, and get back out of range so he can’t counter. Simple and effective, no? The last time we saw this gameplan implemented, Carlos Condit won a title belt.

Clay Guida beat Gray Maynard, plain and simple. Guida’s footwork and effective defense kept Maynard guessing at best, punching at phantoms at worst. From bell to bell and post to post, the Greg Jackson product literally danced his way to victory. I know, because I saw it. What fight were you watching?