Sanchez bests Guida in a classic battle

Written by Jim Murphy   |   Sunday, June 21 2009

Clay Guida and Diego Sanchez stand toe to toe and trade during their 'fight of the year' candidate main event at the UFC's 'Ultimate Fight Night' (Photo: Zuffa, LLC)

When the UFC announced Clay Guida vs. Diego Sanchez as the main event of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ finale MMA cognoscenti quickly pegged it as a potential fight of the year.  On Saturday night, with these already lofty expectations the two UFC lightweight contenders delivered.  Boy, did they delver—Diego Sanchez used his superior technical striking skill to earn a split decision victory over the tough, courageous and borderline inhuman challenge of Clay Guida in a fight that must be seen to be believed. 

The Guida/Sanchez classic left an already entertaining night of MMA action in the dust.  Earlier in the night, Ross Pearson defeated Andre Winner to win the lightweight tournament on ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ and James Wilks manhandled Demarques Johnson to take the welterweight crown.  Even on a night where Dana White awarded a total of three ‘fight of the night’ bonuses nothing could prepare fans for the Guida/Sanchez cataclysm.

Clay Guida and Diego Sanchez are flip sides of the same coin—Guida is a fun loving, floppy haired ball of energy who wins fights on the basis of his relentless pressure and powerful wrestling.  Sanchez is a tightly wound, highly intense fighter with ungodly technical skills both standing and on the ground.  As they entered the arena, it was clear that both men couldn’t wait to fight though they displayed it in different ways.  Guida danced his way into the cage, headbanging and slapping high fives to the crowd.  Sanchez entered screaming his Anthony Robbins inspired ‘YES’ mantra and looking as if he could literally kill someone.  He began to lock eyes with his opponent before he had even reach the prep point, making for what could be a Guinness Book of Records mark for longest prefight staredown.  When the actual staredown began Sanchez got right up in Guida’s face and ‘The Carpenter’ didn’t back down in the least prompting UFC color commentator Joe Rogan to quip 'You couldn't ask for two more psychotic dudes to fight each other'.

Sanchez exploded at the opening bell, attacking Guida with a barrage of strikes.  In a breathtaking display of toe to toe fighting not seen since the PRIDE classic between Don Frye and Yoshihiro Takayama, Guida returned fire but was clearly getting the worst of the exchange.  After eating a big knee strike, Guida got the fight to the ground for couldn’t keep it there.  After the standup resumed Sanchez clocked Guida with a high kick that would have ended the fight against 99.9% of opponents.  Guida, on the other hand, though clearly rocked by the shot kept coming forward.  Though Sanchez overwhelmingly won the opening round there are few fighters that would have still been *in* the fight at that point earning Guida much respect from the live crowd.

In the second round, Guida quickly got a takedown and began to work some ground and pound from the top.  Before long, Sanchez began to respond with brutal elbow strikes from the bottom that opened a bloody gash on Guida’s browline.   Despite Sanchez’s effective counter from the bottom position, Guida won the second round on the SAVSCI scorecard.  In the final frame, Guida stood and traded with Sanchez again this time with better results than in the opening frame.  Still, Sanchez’s wicked uppercuts and submission attempts off of Guida’s takedown likely won him the round.

The judges went 29-28 Guida, 29-28 Sanchez and 29-27 Sanchez.  Yahoo Sports’ Kevin Iole had the fight at 28-28 draw, giving Sanchez a 10-8 edge in the first round and Guida 10-9 margins in the second and third.  The Savage Science scored it 29-28 for Guida.  Sanchez was effusive in his praise for Guida’s toughness in his postfight interview and got off one of the best lines of the night saying “I love it when the guy is bleeding on top of me". 

In first of two finals from ‘The Ultimate Fighter’, Ross Pearson used his power and a relentless pace to earn a unanimous decision victory over Andre Winner.   After three very close rounds, all three of the ringside judges went 29-28 for Pearson as did our unofficial cageside judge at SAVSCI.  In the other ‘TUF’ final, James Wilks mauled Demarcus Johnson using a power striking game and impressive submission fluency to control the round before ending the fight via tapout to a rear naked choke.

Earlier in the card in what was the presumptive ‘fight of the night’ before the main event epic, Chris Lytle used his power striking to earn a 29-28, 29-28, 29-28 unanimous decision over a game Kevin Burns.  Burns was able to counter Lytle’s wild haymakers at several points in the fight, which was another ‘must see’ toe to toe slugfest.  By the third round, a bloodied and exhausted Burns began to get picked apart by the better conditioned Lytle.

In the opening bout, Joe ‘Daddy’ Stevenson turned in one of the best performances of his career as he managed to counter the unorthodox submission game of Nate Diaz to win via unanimous decision.  Despite the one sided verdict, it was an extremely spirited fight from both men and earned the other ‘fight of the night’ spiff from Dana White along with the main event and Lytle/Burns.  

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