Clay Guida: "Wrestling wins championships"

LAS VEGAS – UFC lightweight contender Clay Guida's grappling-heavy victory over Anthony Pettis (13-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC) may have done little to wow some fans, but "The Carpenter" doesn't regret the strategy.

Sure, he would have liked to finish the fight just as much as Spike TV-viewers probably hoped to witness such a result in the co-feature of Saturday night's The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale event, but it simply didn't happen.

Nevertheless, Guida (29-11 MMA, 9-5 UFC) never thought once about straying from his wrestling-based approach. After all, Guida is simply following a blueprint established by countless others – control the position, control the fight.

"Wrestling wins championships," Guida told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). "Look at most of the champs right now, and some of the people that have a hard time. Anderson Silva is one of my favorite fighters, and you've seen that he has trouble with good wrestlers like Chael Sonnen.

"Cain Velasquez is one of the best wrestlers out there. Georges St-Pierre is a phenom. He's one of those athletes that comes around once every 100 years. The guy could probably go wrestle in the Olympics. You saw he used to struggle with wrestling. Now he's a master of it. Jose Aldo has a couple of holes in his game. We saw besides maybe his gas tank, it could be wrestling. Mark Hominick is not a great wrestler, and he was taking him down.

"There's no secret anymore. Wrestling wins championships."

Like it or not, it's hard to argue with Guida's logic. The gritty 29-year-old used his wrestling skills to nullify the acrobatic Pettis' patented "Showtime" attacks. The approach sometimes left the crowd wanting more, but it also led to Guida taking all three rounds on all three judges' scorecards.

"We knew grappling was going to be the key," Guida said. "We know he's a very long, rangy striker, very creative, one of the most imaginative strikers I've seen in my weight division. … We caught him in the exchanges when his hands were up, and when he was throwing punches, I was shooting and trying not to get kneed in the face."

To his credit, Pettis fought hard from his back. Shifting his hips from side to side while seeking out submissions, the former WEC lightweight champ ensured Guida never felt too comfortable on top. Nevertheless, Pettis could never fully lock in any attempted finishes, and Guida kept grinding away from the top.

Guida admitted it didn't come easy.

"He's the trickiest guy I've fought," Guida said of Pettis. "He's got the most tricky guard I've ever fought. I must have defended 10, 12 triangles and armbars.

"He hit me lights out a couple of times from the bottom. I ain't going to lie. He kicked me in the back of the head. He punched me. He elbowed me. He's tough as nails. He's got a real tricky guard, and he's a super-talented kid.

"I've got a lot of work on my wrestling. I've got a lot of work on my top game, on my hands, obviously. I was tentative. Anthony had me backing up for a little bit. We were kind of going back and forth. He's very rangy, and I was just a little tentative with his kicks and punches and things like that."

With Guida content to control from the top, often preferring to maintain positional dominance rather than actively seeking a finish, the bout sometimes lagged in spots, and the perceived lack of action was criticized by some fans and pundits.

Still, the win was Guida's fourth-straight positive result, and he's starting to be mentioned once again among the lightweight division's elite.

"I didn't want to see it go to the judges," Guida said. "It was obviously a dominating victory, but a finish would have looked more highly in the eyes of the UFC – of Dana White and Joe Silva, who pick the fights. It's interesting, now.

"Ben Henderson and Jim Miller, who knows? Jim Miller, I think, could be the frontrunner. But I think everyone that has seen me fight knows I've probably fought the toughest competition in the lightweight division. We never have walkthrough fights. We always fight the best competition, like Anthony Pettis."

With UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard not yet scheduled for their trilogy contest, the lightweight division is in a bit of a holding pattern. Miller, Henderson, Dennis Siver, Melvin Guillard and others are all making runs in the division, and their pecking order isn't necessarily clear.

Whatever happens, the always-game Guida said he's ready to keep fighting and keep winning.

And a title shot? Well, Guida certainly believes he knows what it takes to get there, and he hopes he's finally going to be given that chance.

"I would love to get that shot," Guida said. "I've paid my dues. I've been hear five years in October.

"(My record of) 9-5 in the UFC does not sit well with me. It's an average record, at best, for me, but I just want to get in there and show the world what the most exciting lightweight fighter is all about."
1) EDGAR                                 3)JON 'BONES' JONES
2) GSP                                       4) CAIN VELASQUEZ