First of all, my apologies for just now getting to this everyone.  I had to take my wife out to celebrate her birthday last night, and I've been busy all day with Father's Day.  So I JUST now got to watch the fights from last night.  The event went pretty much how I expected except a couple of things:

I didn't expect Andre Winner to lose...nor Demarques Johnson, but they did. 

I kind of expected Joe Stevenson to fight the way he did, and actually he fought just as I said he would if he was going to win.  Nate Diaz needs to work on his wrestling something serious, and/or just make the move down to 145lbs.  I've repeatedly that he has always relied on his BJJ off his back entirely too much.  The better fighters know how to stay away from making the mistakes the lower tier fighters make, and we see what happens as Diaz has now lost back to back fights.

Chris Lytle and Kevins Burns did just what everyone knew they would do. 

Now on to the fight that everyone is talking about and/or debating.  First of all, how in the world did anyone score that fight for Clay Guida? 

Diego Sanchez dominated Clay Guida the entire first round and that has to be scored a 10-8.  He dropped Guida with a head kick and was punishing non-stop before that with combinations and flying knees.  If that isn't a 10-9 round there has never been one.  In Round 2, we say Guida get the take down like a couple of elbows and hammer fists but didn't pass Sanchez's guard or anything.  In fact, Diego Sanchez caused more damage with delivering elbows to Guida's head while holding Guida in his guard.  If anyone was going to give a round to Guida this was the one.  Although I scored it even simply because of the damage that Sanchez caused to Guida with the elbows.  The third round saw Diego win the first 3 mins of the round on the feet, only to go for a submission(that was locked in) and then lose position.  He then had a couple of other submission attempts in which Guida managed to avoid.

I give Clay Guida FULL credit for being able to take a beating and being tough, but he wasn't even close to winning that fight.  How could what Guida did in the last 1:30 count for more than what Sanchez did in the first 3 mins or so?  All he did was fall into Sanchez's guard when Diego was going for that arm triangle submission.  This is another prime example of what is wrong with judging in MMA.  There needs to be clear guidelines as to what counts for what.  I'll be putting up another post shortly in regards to this.  The quick results are after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

Clay Guida speaks after losing to Diego Sanchez in the main event of the TUF 9 Finale:

"I still feel I’m the best out here in the lightweights. It might take me another year to get that title shot…. I gotta give [Diego Sanchez] credit. He’s one of the first guys to take me down in the cage. He didn’t really do much with it, but he still scored some points. He brought a little bit of everything, kicks, punches, takedown, takedown defense….

I don't know, maybe I'm still having biased thoughts about Clay Guida's last couple of performances.  In all honesty, he didn't do anything different against Diego Sanchez than he did against Nate Diaz.  He managed to secure a take down and pretty much do nothing with it.  He was never close to stopping Diego, nor did he have him hurt at any time in the fight.  I know fighters are supposed to be confident in their abilities and what not, but I still can't figure out how Guida thought/thinks he is so close to a title shot.  All his wins as of late have been against guys no where near the top of the UFC lightweight division.

Props: MMAWeekly

The Ultimate Fighter 9 Finale coverage

Join Matt Bishop starting tonight at 9 p.m. ET for live play-by-play and discussion of The Ultimate Fighter 9 Finale, which is headlined by a lightweight tilt between Diego Sanchez and Clay Guida.

Also, be sure to check out Lights Out Radio immediately following the live broadcast, as Matt, Neil and Forrest will be LIVE! to discuss both ShoMMA and the TUF 9 Finale.

 The Ultimate Fighter 9 Finale coverage

Continue reading this post »

The Ultimate Fighter 9 Finale coverage

Diego Sanchez speaks with Steve Cofield about facing Clay Guida at the TUF 9 Finale.  I think Sanchez is basically trying to bait Clay Guida to stand with him in this video.  This is the second time that I've heard Sanchez say he has a big left knee waiting for Clay Guida if he shoots on him for a take down.  So we'll see if this psychological warfare pays off for Sanchez.  He also mentions that he might bring back the old Diego GnP with 'thunder strikes'.  It's a pretty good listen as both fighters build up their main event fight for Saturday night.  Clay Guida's interview is after the jump. 

Continue reading this post »

The past two years have been long for Melvin "The Young Assassin" Guillard.  He's endured back to back losses in the cage, positive cocaine tests, and probation violations.  The latter keeping him from appearing on the UFC 90 card in Chicago last year.  Now with all that behind him and 16 months of being sober, Guillard will return to the cage this weekend to face the always tough Gleison Tibau.  Let's take a look at what how he and Tibau match up:

Melvin Guillard-KO power, very athletic, solid wrestling, is vulnerable to submissions

Gleison Tibau-Huge LW and very strong, good submission game

It's no secret that Guillard will want to keep this fight standing, as he's vulnerable to submissions and that's a strong suit of Tibau.  Usually Guillard enjoys a size/strength advantage, but I don't think that will be the case here.  I've seen Tibau in person before, and let me just say that I have no idea how he makes 155.  Tibau has been stopped via TKO a couple of times, so it's not out of the realm of possibility for Guillard to end it early.  However, I think the longer this fight goes the more it'll benefit Tibau.  Guillard's been out of action since July of 08', so I'm sure there's some cage rust in his game.  Whereas Tibau has already fought twice in 2009, winning both fights against scrappy opponents.  He should look to take Guillard down and use his size/submission game to his advantage.

I know some people don't care for Guillard and think he's bad for the sport, but I like the guy for some reason.  I'm just happy to see him get his life back together somewhat.  He has a tough road ahead of him on Saturday night.  He's beaten the odds a couple of times in terms of getting sober and back in the cage, do you think he can beat the odds on Saturday night?  Give me your thoughts. 

The Ultimate Fighter 9 Finale coverage

We'll be in for a treat this weekend as we'll get to witness a very good match up between two TUF veterans in Nate Diaz vs. Joe Stevenson.  This is a VERY important fight as both fighters are coming off losses.  However, Stevenson has lost 3 straight and a loss here could possibly see him released from the UFC.  Nate Diaz is coming off a loss to Clay Guida, but it's not a loss that really hurt his stock, as Guida just bear hugged him the entire fight.  Yet, he still loss and had he used his length correctly he would have picked Guida a part.  Well, let's take a look at how these two match up:

Joe Stevenson-Stevenson is compact and strong, adequate standup skills, very good guillotine, and is pretty difficult to finish

Nate Diaz-Rangy, pretty good stand up, very good BJJ, had good cardio

Continue reading this post »

This Saturday night we'll be treated to a lightweight bout that should be pretty entertaining.  Diego Sanchez will be making his second appearance as a lightweight since dropping down from the welterweight division.  We last saw Sanchez a couple of months ago winning a decision against the always game Joe Stevenson.  Clay Guida has been a staple in the UFC lightweight division since late 2006.  Guida is currently riding a 3 fight winning streak, winning a very lackluster decision against Nate Diaz at UFC 94.  Let's take a look at these two fighters match up:

Clay Guida-Very good cardio, good chin, good wrestler, and does well in the scrambles.

Diego Sanchez-Very good cardio, great chin, good wrestler, does well in the scrambles, much improved stand up game, good GnP.

Continue reading this post »