It’s the second round, or maybe the third, hell it could even be the first and Clay “The Carpenter” Guida has Nate Diaz pressed against the cage. It looks like Clay is working hard for something but whatever it is he sure isn’t accomplishing it. Almost every minute of the fight goes this way. And I loved watching every second of it.

Like everyone else I get bored watching Lay n Pray. So why am I so pumped over Guida holding Nate Diaz’s back? And why am I sitting on the edge of my seat – chewing my nails like a nervous girlfriend every time there is any stand up action? Because Clay Guida is a warrior, that’s why. There is no chance the UFC gave Clay that fight, with Nate, thinking he would win. But he did win, even though it was clear Nate was the better fighter.

And that is what makes Guida so exciting. Time and again he is put in the ring with fighters that should beat him, guys who are usually bigger, have more skills, and have been alpha athletes their whole lives. But he beats them. Sure The Carpenter does not have a perfect record but he’s lost only one of his last five matches. Keep in mind in his last seven fights Clay has only been taller than one opponent - Tyson Griffin, who he did lose to but many feel wrongly. And in his last two fights Clay Guida has faced two good submission artists, Mac Danzig and Nate Diaz. Imagine having to take a match with a fighter knowing that your strength plays right into their game. If you ask me Joe Silva made those two matches thinking that Clay would take the fight to the ground and get submitted in the process.

But that isn’t what happened, two good jiu jitsu practitioners had a combined thirty minutes to sub Guida and they failed. The Carpenter may go into most of his matches as an underdog but like I said he has won four of his last five fights. None of them were all that pretty. But he never backed down, never laid down, and never stopped trying. It’s possible that there is no one in the lightweight division that wants to win as badly as Clay does and I feel explains his success inside the octagon. Even as a fan I have to admit that Clay’s standup is mediocre. He was so proud of the fact he got some leg kicks in against Nate Diaz that he brought it up in both the post fight interview and the post fight press conference. Who points out their leg kicks? Someone with little stand-up game that’s who. What about submissions? Well his last submission victory was in 2006. I will let you decide what that means.

There is no one in the UFC who does so much, with so few skills. So don’t tell me he is boring to watch. How can you not cheer for an underdog who actually wins? Clay Guida is like a little, hairy, wild version of Rocky. I know its cliché. And I know I should be more creative. But there is just no other way to put it. Clay Guida is the people’s warrior. If he’s not someone to cheer for then I don’t know who is.

War Clay “The Carpenter” Guida.

Steven Risley
RisleySR@hotmail.com Tags-(clay fights guida mma ufc )