Guida and Sanchez put on war of the year in UFC
Published by Zach Arnold on June 21st, 2009 in Current Events

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Both men promised us a war and they delivered.

We’ve been spoiled this month in terms of great MMA matches. We had Urijah Faber against Mike Brown at 145 pounds in Sacramento two weeks ago. On Saturday, we had two 155 pound stars put on a performance so good that it left you wishing the fight was five rounds instead of three.

“No one’s pushed me around the cage, no one’s had their way with me,” exclaimed Caveman Clay Guida in remarks leading up to his fight against Diego Sanchez. “If you want to try to outwrestle me, go for it. Try to take me down. No one’s held me down. Bring whatever you got, Diego, I’m ready.”

Diego Sanchez is known for his comically goofy intense looks and staredowns. It comes across more silly than real, and yet Sanchez is the real deal. He’s not a joke. He looks to hurt people and has all the tools to beat anyone on any given day. Sanchez and Guida were treated as ‘ace’ level stars in Las Vegas by the crowd, so much so that the fight introductions by Bruce Buffer were as good as the main event. The staredown between both men had the fans rivoted. These men meant business.

The key for Sanchez in winning was to keep the fight standing and punish Guida. Guida allowed this to happen in round one and wow, did he ever pay the price for it. Sanchez annihilated him with sharp hooks, uppercuts, and straight shots. He threw jumping knees to the face of Guida and bloodied him within 30 seconds of the fight. The pace was lightning fast. Guida managed to get Diego down on the mat and that was where the fight needed to be if Clay was going to win. Slow the pace down and Clay had a shot of winning on points. Diego tried the rubber guard several times in the bout, but as UFC commentator Joe Rogan pointed out he doesn’t have the flexibility yet to pull it off in a fight. Both men got back up standing and Sanchez drilled Guida with a left high kick that put the Caveman down. It would have finished off most fighters, but Guida was like the energizer bunny and keep on going. Sanchez came with more knees and even busted Clay’s defensive guard with uppercuts. It was about as dominant of a round as you could get in a UFC fight.

If Guida was going to have any chance of regaining his composure in the fight, he needed to get it on the ground.

“Diego thinks I’m going to lay on him and try to hold on for a decison? He’s terribly confused because when I drop an elbow across his forehead and I get my hand raised, he’s going to be like, alright, Clay just beat me, back to the drawing board.”

Guida lived up to his words in round two, as he got a takedown and started punishing Diego with shots. The fans were loudly calling out Guida’s name. Clay continued to pound away on Diego and Diego countered back with some of the sharpest elbows I’ve ever seen in a defensive position. By this point, the juice was totally flowing from Guida and Diego was covered in blood. It was almost the end of round two and both men were going at an amazingly high pace. Clay won the round.

Round three saw the crowd continue a Guida chant, all while Diego was shrugging off the caveman’s takedown attempts. Guida and Sanchez tagged each other with punches and the crowd continued to back Guida. It was an electric atmosphere. Diego caught Guida on the ground and was on his back, but because he had so much blood on him he was slick and Clay slipped out. Sanchez went for a choke and then an arm lock, but couldn’t pull it off. Near the end of the fight, UFC cameraman caught a shot of Diego’s back in which he was entirely covered with Clay’s blood. It was the kind of juice job you would see a major league blader do in professional wrestling. Guida managed to catch Diego towards the end of the fight and get some rapid exchanges. It was an awesome finish to a fight where Caveman Clay’s white shorts turned entirely 100% pink by the end of the third round.

Sanchez ended up winning a split decision on the score cards, but Guida came out of this fight as big of a superstar as if he had won. He was so amped up that he kept jumping around during his post-fight interview. Sanchez looked like he could go two more rounds, too. Both of these men are ultra-tough and would give heartburn to any contender at 155 pounds. It was the perfect fight and the perfect outcome for UFC. While the Caveman has been noted as Fight of the Night bonus specialist in UFC (his record is 5-4 in the Zuffa mat), Guida shied away from that label in pre-fight comments he made.

“To me, I’m out here for wins. I’m out here to get that title belt. I’m here for the long haul. I’m here to be the UFC champion. People to look at and for a long time say Clay Guida was one of the best, is the best UFC fighter in the world. The money comes. We naturally put on exciting fights, so I’m not worrying about the bonuses. They just happen to come, they’re nice, they’re awesome, they help out a lot. I’m here for W’s, man, that’s what it’s about.”

Guida didn’t get the win in the record books, but he earned Sanchez’s respect and won the Las Vegas crowd over. He also won a $25,000 USD Fight of the Night bonus.

Next up for Diego: a title shot against the winner of BJ Penn vs. Kenny Florian.

Ultimate Fighter contestants get overshadowed on Saturday’s card

Ross Pearson, Andre Winner, Damarques Johnson, and James Wilks were the finalists on this season’s Ultimate Fighter reality show. Based on the Team USA vs. Team UK concept, three of the four finalists were British fighters. Much in the same way that WWE has odd, curious ways of ribbing employees, UFC made it a point to give subtitles to all the English fighters speaking on camera. It was embarrassing, but what else would you expect?

Pearson won a 29-28 unanimous decision over Winner in a relatively boring fight. However, Mike Goldberg either on his own volition or prodded by a producer in his earpiece kept emphasizing over and over on the telecast how exciting and great this fight was. The one highlight of the fight was Pearson tagging Winner towards the end of R3 with a shot that made Winner juice heavy due to a cut on his left cheek.

Wilks trampled Johnson towards the end of R1 with a choke sleeper hold. While Johnson proved game and tried to counter whatever Wilks brought to the table, the Englishman really wasn’t in that much danger of losing the fight. Johnson tried to trip Wilks down but Wilks turned the tables. Whatever Johnson did, Wilks did better and ultimately Damarques gave up his back and paid the price for it.

The heavy storyline being pushed by UFC is how far the UK fighters have come in such a short time of amount. I suppose it’s better than the other storyline, which is that the talent for the American side on the reality show was relatively weak in comparison to past show rosters.