Clay Guida vs Gray Maynard

by Dr. Octagon, J.D.

Clay Guida comes out to “Respect” by Pantera. Totally righteous tune. On my puming iron mix brah. RIP Dimebag Darrel.

Guida has his hair in braids. Apparently Gray Maynard filed a complaint about his hair. Pathetic. I hope Guida wins this one. Guida is known for his high energy and submissions. He just keeps coming forward and is very difficult to stop.

Gray Maynard is an enormous lightweight. He comes out to some hippity hoppity crap that the kids are listening to nowadays. Gray is really strong, has great wrestling, and lots of power. I know this is going to sound crazy, but Guida presents a similar problem to Edgar. They’re both high energy fighters, who are tough to knock down and always moving. They’re also both strong wrestlers and capable of keeping up a fast pace. But Gray is just so much bigger than Clay. Live updates after the jump:[[MORE]]

Round 1: Massive Guida chant. Left jab from Guida. Maynard throws a left hook. Maynard is cut on the nose. Guida is landing by coming forward with the hook. Guida kicks. Guida has been able to evade Maynard’s strikes so far. Guida comes forward with the jab. Maynard needs to get active. He’s losing this round. Guida lands again.

Guida won that one 10-9.

Round 2: Gray says he got poked in the eye. Guida keeps sticking him with that left jab. Guida is throwing that nice right down the pipe. Guida looks like he landed a right hook there. Gray swings and Guida evades. Can’t believe Gray hasn’t shot yet. More Guida chants from the crowd. Gray is following Guida around, but Guida is counterpunching effectively.

Guida keeps coming in and landing. Maynard swinging wildly. He’s missing and looking frustrated. Clay landed a right there. Clay landed a kick. Gray landed a right. Best punch he’s landed all night. Crowd is booing. Gray lands a right there. Guida with a head kick and two punches.

Close, but I give it to Guida for landing more strikes. 10-9 Guida.

Guida is doing his best Carlos Condit impersonation. Critics of Greg Jackson’s strategic fight plans must be howling right now. Buy a Victory Motorcycle because an old man is yelling at you. These commercials are horrendous.

Round 3: Guida with a kick to the body. Gray lands a big right hand. Guida smiles at him. Gray moving even more awkwardly. Gray Maynard is really sweaty and his tramp stamp is glistening. Clay lands a left and puts his hands down. He’s taunting Maynard. Maynard is getting really frustrated; he shoots and Guida stuffs it. He shoots again and Guida stuffs it again. Guida lands a left and shoots a single on a Maynard kick, but lets go. Gray looks frustrated.

Maynard landed there I think, but Clay was moving away from it. Maynard whiffs thrice. Guida lands a left. Maynard whiffs. Maynard whiffs again. Guida swings and it is blocked. Maynard whiffs twice as Guida backs away. Maynard is pointing to his eye again. I think he just wants to catch his breath. Crowd is booing lustily. Gray lands a nice knee. Clay adjusts his ponytail after Gray clearly grabbed it for a better grip as he threw a knee.

I guess I’ll give that one to Guida 10-9 again, even though he’s running because Gray whiffed so many times.

Round 4: Clay lands a right. Clay lands a combination. Guida chants. Gray gets a clinch and grabs the back of his hair again. Gray is using the braids for leverage. Gray is a dirty mofo. Clay lands and then circles away. Gray Maynard is not really trying to win this fight. I don’t know how the judges are going to score some of these practically actionless rounds.

Gray lands two punches, but Guida is circling away. Maynard is throwing and Guida circled away. Gray throws a slow headkick that misses by a mile. Gray runs after Guida who circles away. The crowd boos. Gray is coming forward, Clay is going back. Gray lands a right hand there. Clay with a big right hook. Gray shoots and gets stuffed, but he has Clay in a clinch now and lands a few knees. Gray puts his hands down and lets Clay punch him in the face three times.

Clay shoots and Maynard sinks the world’s deepest guillotine. Clay furiously slams him twice and gets out of it; he’s on top of Gray, who is bleeding from his face. Gray is grabbing Clay’s hair again. Gray is going for a guillotine as Guida lands a bunch of shoulder strikes, the round ends.

I’ll give that one to Gray 10-9 for pushing the action.

Round 5: This is going to be a close decision. Guida lands a left. Maynard lands a right. Guida lands a left. Gray is throwing, but Clay is blocking and circling away. Gray needs to push the  action. This is not a fight that you want to leave in the hands of the judges. Clay with an enormous head kick and two punches. Gray lands a huge right that Guida shrugs off. Uppercut by Guida. Jab by Guida. Gray comes back with a right. Gray goes for the single, but Guida is out.

Gray looks tired. Guida lands a left and circles away. Gray throws a right and Guida circles away. Ref stops the action and tells Clay to stop running away. A little late for that brah. Gray comes forward and lands.  Clay lands his own punch. Clay lands a left hand. Gray shoot, Clay gets nice and low to stuff it. Gray gets a single leg. Clay is defending. Gray might need more than a takedown to win this one. Gray is landing a few knees. Nice way for Gray to finish the round I guess. Gray lands two knees from the clinch.

Nice strategy by Guida (really the only way he could win), but not the best fight to watch. That was the best way for Guida to do it though. He fought his fight and it’s all going to depend on who won the nearly actionless round 3.

Judges score it 48-47 Maynard (twice) 48-47 Guida. What an awful fight. Gray Maynard takes a close split decision. I guess I’ll have to watch that Round 3 again, but my DVR cut out.  Judges must have been fans of octagon control. I thought Guida connected more, but it is hard to tell while typing up the fight. That’s the problem with strategies that rely on the judges. You better win it by a mile, because the judges don’t always agree. Can’t wait to see the punch stats on that one. I suspect Guida landed more strikes, but who knows.

What’s funny is in a previous fight blog tonight, I was saying how Cub Swanson shows that Greg Jackson’s fighters try to finish fights. Clay certainly did not. I guess I have to eat my words. The judges clearly punished Clay for running. I wonder if the additional scrutiny to this fight strategy after Condit’s controversial victory affected the scoring.

I’m glad Guida didn’t win, even though I don’t really like Gray Maynard. Round-by-round scoring doesn’t really work in a fight with this little action. I still think that this was the best strategy for Clay, but he should have dialed up the offense a little more. I didn’t catch the corner talk, but I have a feeling Greg Jackson might have told Guida he won the first three rounds, figuring if he ran the last two, he would win it. Anyway, this loss is good for the sport. I’m glad that judges are starting to penalize guys for going backward. Hopefully we’ll never see a fight like this again.