Jun-18-2009
Good time Guida In It For More Than Just Kicks
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Silver Star Clay Guida UFC 107 Walkout Jersey
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By Elias Cepeda
For many, UFC lightweight Clay Guida’s image is that of a fun loving, devil may care spitfire and eternal optimist. But those who think Guida is simply along for a ride in the world’s premier mixed martial arts organization are sorely mistaken.
“I’ve never been satisfied to say ‘I fought in the UFC,’” Guida says. “I’m not going to go back down to smaller shows because of a poor display or a string of losses.”
On Saturday night Guida, who was once rejected from being on a season of The Ultimate Fighter, will look to defeat a TUF winner for the third time when he faces off against Diego Sanchez. Sanchez is a one-time contender at welterweight that successfully moved down to lightweight last winter with a win over Joe Stevenson.
Sanchez shares many of Guida’s strengths, including incredible conditioning and aggressiveness. But Sanchez also has excellent submission skills and is the naturally larger fighter. So, surprise, surprise, Clay Guida is once again an underdog.
But don’t expect him to be more impressed with Sanchez than he has been with any of his past conquered foes. “He has improved his striking,” Guida admits regarding Sanchez. “But he looks kind of robotic, not natural. How many of his past opponents really pushed him?”
Most of the chatter surrounding the Spike TV main event on the 20th has been regarding a possible title shot for Sanchez should he win impressively. But Guida doesn’t want anyone to forget that he’s the one that has already beaten some of the globe’s best lightweights and is currently riding a three fight win streak.
“It’s only a matter of time before I get that belt wrapped around my waist,” he promises.
This Clay Guida isn’t the ultra fan friendly, polite and humble human being he is 99.9% of the time. But Guida isn’t all high energy entrances, rock music and surfer hair. There is another side to the man that only his training partners and opponents get to fully experience. That side of Guida isn’t all smiles and content with simply fighting at a high level – instead, it is consumed with the desire to be the best.
And though Guida seems to possess a remarkable child-like exuberance while competing, much like NFL great Brett Farvre did, he also won’t be satisfied until he achieves the same championship success as the long time Packer. Guida, a diehard Chicago Bears fan and Soldier Field regular, will have to forgive the cheese head comparison.
Bringing heart and soul with him to the playing field has never been an issue for Guida, but, for a time, applying the right strategy was. Take, for example, the last time Guida headlined a UFC event back in December of 2007. After dominating Roger Huerta for nearly all of the first two rounds, he stood toe to toe with the slugger, giving Huerta his last remaining chance at winning, and ended up getting rocked and losing by submission in the final stanza.
“I shouldn’t have rushed in. I should have had better defense,” Guida reflects.
To recover, Guida “just got back in the gym and learned not to get reckless. I tightened up some things.” He calls the months between that loss and his next fight the following the “biggest learning period” of his career. And one of the most important lessons he learned was not a new one at all.
“My high school varsity football coach Bob Bradshaw said something to us back then and I believed it but never truly understood it until I started fighting. He said that you play the way you practice. If you practice hard, you will play hard. If you practice correctly, you will fight correctly.”
Making strategic changes after disappointment is something that Guida finds himself doing on a daily basis. “In training I get the living crap beaten out of me,” Guida says, deadly serious.
From wrestling to Jiu Jitsu and stand up training, the Gilbert Grappling and Midwest Training Center fighter says he routinely takes lump after lump from teammates. “For example, this camp is going well but there have been times where I think, 'man I missed this'. There can be a practice where I get two takedowns the whole time and I get taken down fifty times. But it’s the fact that you get in there, and you’re learning and grinding.”
And Guida takes solace knowing that he’s always an entirely different and more effective guy come fight night. “I'm not a great wrestler but I'm good at wrestling for MMA. I'm good at getting takedowns in exchanges, stuffing that shot in exchanges. Fighting comes naturally to me. Those flurries, getting it to the ground, going at a high pace,” Guida says.
Something about the lack of restraints in fighting an actual opponent instead of a training partner, as well as the heat and stage of the moment, helps Guida elevate his game each and every time out. “I rise to the occasion in the fight. My best performances are always under the lights. I turn a switch the whole week of the fight. It’s show time and I want to give everyone what they came for. I want to give myself what I deserve for all the hard work; the blood and the sweat shed. I'm not that great in practice, and I may not even be that great in the fight, but I am never satisfied in my performance.”
Guida will be exactly as amped up as he will appear to be as he runs into the Octagon Saturday night to face Sanchez. “When I see those lights, hear that music, see the fans, from head to toe I get chills. It’s amazing. I most definitely zone and tune in then,” he says.
Although it certainly sounds like the little guy everyone counts out is already pretty “tuned” into battling the relentless Sanchez, or at least into what he is intent on doing to the “Nightmare”. Sanchez’s pace, strength, size and skill are certainly factors that could come in to play during their fight, Guida admits.
But the one thing Guida always holds constant in his mind is that his opponent, no matter who he is and no matter who else he’s fought, has never before faced someone quite “The Carpenter.”
“I’m not going to stop, I’m never going to tap. One thing about me is that I’m going to make you fight my style of fight.”
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