The UFC hit Atlantic City’s Revel Casino this past Friday for a card that featured a lightweight scrap between Clay “the Carpenter” Guida and Gray Maynard, who was making his comeback after suffering defeat in a lightweight title fight at the hands of Frankie Edgar. Also on the card were Spencer Fisher and Sam Stout, finishing their exciting trilogy of fights. Here are the highs and lows of this past Friday’s UFC on FX card.
The Highs
As a longtime Dan Miller fan, I was happy to hear that he was dropping to 170 pounds, and I was even happier to hear he would be facing Ricardo Funch in his welterweight debut. I imagined he would dismantle Funch easily and score a first round stoppage, but Funch was a surprisingly game opponent. Miller has been struggling a lot with personal issues recently, as his son Daniel has a rare kidney disease and requires a kidney transplant. Because of that, it was nice to see the Miller family secure an impressive win in their home state when Miller tapped out Funch in round 3.
Matt Brown took on Luis Ramos in a welterweight clash, and Brown continued his highly-impressive 2012 by amassing his third win of the year. Matt Brown showed impressive clinch work, landing numerous uppercuts and vicious knees, and has really seemed to turn his game around of late. I would be interested to see Matt Brown square off against Rick Story next.
Cub Swanson has long been the most unfortunate man in MMA, suffering from lengthy injury spells throughout his tenure in WEC and the UFC, and he also had the misfortune of being matched up with the baddest man at 145 pounds, Jose Aldo; their bout at WEC 41 ended in 8 seconds after Aldo landed flush with a double flying knee. In recent bouts, Swanson has looked reinvigorated, and has regained his confidence as a fighter. It really showed this past Friday, when he picked apart TUF winner Ross Pearson with strikes before landing a devastating knockout blow. Next I would like to see Ricardo Lamas and Cub Swanson face each other.
Sam Stout and Spencer Fisher have long been associated with each other because of their first two exciting fights, and the final fight of the trilogy didn’t disappoint, as both fighters looked considerably better than they have in recent bouts. The standup was exciting but very even, so Stout capitalised on his wrestling advantage and used takedowns to secure each round, en route to a decision victory.
Gray Maynard has had a tough time recently; drawing with Frankie Edgar and then being knocked out by him in the rematch forced him to reassess his life. He left his longtime home of Las Vegas and his longtime team at Xtreme Couture, and moved to San Jose to train under the tutelage of Javier Mendes and Bob Cook at AKA. In addition to training at AKA, Maynard has also addressed his cardio problems by bringing in the Marinovich brothers to help him out. The Marinoviches are of course famous for helping former champion BJ Penn with his cardio in the past.
With all the changes Gray Maynard has made in his life and his training, he came out like a new fighter against Clay Guida, stalking Guida for five rounds, and looking fresh at the end of the fight. I especially enjoyed when Gray Maynard went all 209 on Guida, and dropped his hands, letting Guida hit him, then when Guida looked for a takedown, he sprawled well and nearly locked up a tight choke. Next I would like to see Maynard matched against Anthony Pettis.
The Lows
Yves Lavigne looked awful all night, and made some bizarre decisions. His stoppage in the Ramsey Nijem vs C.J Keith fight was shocking, and I find it really worrying that he will be refereeing next month’s middleweight title bout between Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen at UFC 148.
I, like most of you, was once a big Clay Guida fan, but I have really been alarmed by his change of style in recent years. His extremely tentative performance against Anthony Pettis was forgivable, since he obviously felt outmatched on the feet, but against Gray Maynard he just looked awful in general — he refused to engage, and the one time he did in the fourth round, he rocked Maynard, but didn’t even bother to follow up. I was really disappointed in his performance.
