On the night of Friday June 22nd at UFC on FX 4 in Atlantic City, NJ in the Revel Casino the question to be answered is: Can the Carpenter cut the Bully down to size?
The BetDSI odds seem to give Guida little chance in this bout but I think he is worthy of consideration. Check out the MMA odds:
Gray Maynard -325
Clay Guida +265
With both fighters coming off a loss they will be keen to get back to winning ways.
Gray Maynard (11-1-0) of course is coming back to the cage after two gruelling battles against Frankie Edgar bringing the trilogy to a close with honours seemingly even with a win each and a draw. Except of course Maynard won the first fight right back in 2008 and the last two fights happened just last year with a draw and then finally a devastating TKO win for Edgar.
Anybody who saw those two fights of course must still be trying to understand how Edgar survived an early vicious onslaught that looked like the fight could be stopped on more than one occasion and left Edgar battered and at times bewildered. But, more importantly perhaps you must wonder how Maynard failed to turn such early domination into two victories. It remains to be seen if these two fights may have affected Maynard mentally.
Apart from those two fights and a freak double TKO against Rob Emerson in 2007, Maynard had only ever seen wins in his pro MMA career and he has not beaten cans, he has wins over the likes of Nate Diaz, Kenny Florian and Roger Huerta. He was legitimately on a tear and worthy of his title shots.
To step back into the cage against Clay Guida (29-9-0) is not an easy option. Guida, a skilful bundle of energy with his hair swishing about his head as he bounces around the cage in a constant blur of action.
However, lets not forget Guida also lost his last outing unanimous decision. Benson Henderson beat him. Of course after that fight Henderson went on to also beat Frankie Edgar and take the title that Maynard so coveted. Guida of course has also fought the likes of Diaz, Huerta and Florian but apart from a win over Diaz, he has been on the wrong end of those results.
This alone would suggest that Maynard would be the favourite and indeed probably a fairly strong one, although, Maynard struggles to finish fights off, with a solid 80% of his wins by decision. Guida will really test Maynard, let’s see if the Bully still has the heart for a battle against the Carpenter.
