Wildman Clay Guida chokes out Takanori Gomi at UFC 125

Clay “The Carpenter” Guida utilized frantic movement to stay outside the power of Takanori “The Fireball Kid” Gomi in their lightweight fight at UFC 125. Guida, constantly bobbing and weaving in an exaggerated manner, landed a nice kick and combination in the first round. Gomi stayed patient on the outside trying to get his timing [...]

Wildman Clay Guida chokes out Takanori Gomi at UFC 125 is a post from: MMA Interplay UFC News

Source: http://www.mmainterplay.com/ufc-news/wildman-clay-guida-chokes-out-takanori-gomi-at-ufc-125-52840/

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UFC 125 Live Results and Play-by-Play: Edgar-Maynard 2, Leben-Stann, More

MMAFrenzy.com will have live results from tonight's "UFC 125: Resolution" event in Las Vegas starting at 8pm ET, as UFC lightweight champ Frankie Edgar rematches Gray Maynard in the pay-per-view headliner.

Source: http://mmafrenzy.com/17050/ufc-125-live-results-and-play-by-play-edgar-maynard-2-leben-stann-more/

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STRIKEFORCE NEWS: JZ Cavalcante wants a rematch with Josh Thomson in San Jose

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

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Gesias "JZ" Cavalcante has unfinished business with Josh Thomson.

The two lightweights squared off in October in Cavalcante's Strikeforce debut, a fight Thomson won by unanimous decision. But Cavalcante had an argument for the scores to be in his favor in the fight, and he still believes he won the fight.

"In my mind, I think I did my job, I did enough to deserve the win," Cavalcante said in an interview with Tatame.com. "I've dominated the first and the last rounds, lost the second one, but that's it."

Cavalcante is awaiting word on his next bout with the organization, and while he expects to return to the cage in February, nothing is yet set. But a rematch with Thomson is a fight he'd like to get.

"The next guy I'd like to confront would be Josh Thomson just to make things clear," JZ said. "I hate this doubt that people now have about that fight. I'd like to fight on his hometown, in San Jose, just like the previous meeting we've had for me to know the event better, its problems, even because a new event always brings you something new."

Those problems, Cavalcante said, included inadequate warm up time, miscommunication and a lack of preparation. However, he feels the second time around will go smoother for him.

"I had a problem with the Commission there and I didn't have time to warm up and do my things, but I was prepared for it, and my mind was also prepared for it," he said. "I'd like to have this same opportunity again, at the same place, the same judges.

"I'd like that, even because I'd like to make it clear I went there to fight, that I'm capable of beating him, which I did last time, but they didn't see it that way."

Link to full interview

Penick's Analysis: I had scored the first fight for Cavalcante, but it came down to a razor thin first round. Cavalcante had success early, but Thomson wound up on top for the end of the round, and that likely swayed the judges' scores in his favor. Still, a rematch wouldn't be a terrible idea for Strikeforce, although Thomson is fighting this Friday in Japan against Tatsuya Kawajiri, so a February return to Strikeforce is probably out of the question. Still, Cavalcante will hopefully come out with an even better performance in his next fight, because he'll need to get himself back on track after a 1-3 record in his last four fights.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/Affliction2/article_7945.shtml

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Clay Guida: 'The road to victory is built in the RV'

Our friends from Fight! Magazine bring us a look at Clay Guida and his spartan lifestyle while training in New Mexico for his UFC 125 bout with Takanori Gomi. 

While working on his fight game in New Mexico, Guida stays on an RV that he parks on a reservation. It's not the most conventional digs for a professional athlete, but it works for him.

Guida talks about how his training has changed since joining Greg Jackson's Camp. He's been doing more than officiating chicken nugget-eating contests. The training is more structured and he can constantly work on the fundamentals. Since going to Jackson's, he's 2-1, beating Shannon Gugerty and Rafael dos Anjos. Will that be enough to beat Gomi? 

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Clay-Guida-The-road-to-victory-is-built-in-the?urn=mma-298961

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UFC NEWS: Scheduled Mike Swick vs. David Mitchell bout at UFC Fight for the Troops 2 scrapped due to injury/illness

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

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Mike Swick's return to the UFC has been postponed once again, as the welterweight posted on Facebook that his scheduled bout with David Mitchell at next month's UFC Fight for the Troops event has been canceled.

"Not fighting on January 22nd," Swick wrote. "I got the call yesterday that David Mitchell backed out due to an injury and considering my current situation we opted to put off the fight all together. I have been dealing with with my esophageal condition this whole camp and its taken a toll on my body. I will need more time to seek better treatment to ensure I can compete at this level."

The condition Swick mentions is something he's been battling for a considerable amount of time. It negatively affected him into his last bout, a submission loss to Paulo Thiago in February at UFC 109, and it has kept him out of action since then.

"[It's] just a really bad condition to have as a pro athlete," he continued. "I got into Martial Arts to push myself [and] compete [with] the best fighters [and] athletes in the world. To give it my all, entertain [and] inspire others to chase their dreams. At this point I am not near at my best [and don't] wanna take a fight just for a paycheck when I cannot deliver what I've worked hard on for 23 years."

UFC Fight for the Troops will be headlined by a lightweight bout between Melvin Guillard and Evan Dunham, and will air live on Spike TV on January 22 from Fort Hood in Texas.

Penick's Analysis: That's really unfortunate news to hear for Swick. He had believed doctors had figured out the issue, and he was supposedly to get an updated treatment that was going to hopefully be better than what he had been doing. Now, with him continuing to seek out better ways to treat this issue, it may take him a considerable amount of time to return to form, if he's able to do so at all. For his sake I hope he's able to get it in check, but it doesn't sound like he's any closer to a solution than he was a few months ago.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_7991.shtml

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WEC NEWS: WEC 53 garners 615,000 viewers on Versus, seventh most in organization's history

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

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The final event for World Extreme Cagefighting was a successful finale for the organization. Not only was Anthony Pettis' remarkable kick off the wall in the fifth round of his bout with Ben Henderson plastered all over ESPN in the days following the event, but the organization brought in the second most viewers for a WEC event on Versus in 2010, and the seventh most viewers overall for the organization.

The Thursday night broadcast garnered a .62 household rating with an average of 615,000 viewers, just short of the mark set with the first WEC event of the year. The WEC 46 event in January, headlined by Henderson against then Champion Jamie Varner, brought 640,000 viewers to the network.

The number was still well short of the biggest WEC events on the network, as well as a few hundred thousand viewers less than the UFC's two forays onto the network in 2010. But the number was above average for the organization, and helped usher out the WEC as the organization is folded into the UFC in 2011.

Penick's Analysis: The numbers are good comparatively speaking, but overall it helps to illustrate why the WEC is folding into the UFC. Without the UFC branding the organization simply wasn't bringing in the numbers to the network. When the UFC ran two cards on Versus in 2010 - both of which were on the lower end of their televised events overall from a drawing power standpoint - that brought in more viewers than any of the WEC cards not headlined by Urijah Faber, it was clear that the WEC wasn't going to gain any more traction with the WEC brand. Still, the organization will be missed overall, but this was a great main event to finish out with.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/WEC/article_7915.shtml

Roan Jucao Carneiro Shane The Engineer Carwin  Jason Hollywood Chambers Ryo Piranha Chonan 

AMADI: Urijah Faber faces major risk/reward in potential 2011 title bout with Dominick Cruz

By: Jason Amadi, MMATorch Columnist

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In November of 2008, Urijah Faber lost the WEC Featherweight Championship to Mike Thomas Brown via TKO at 2:23 of the very first round. The loss would not only snap an impressive thirteen fight winning streak, but would also send "The California Kid" into an awkward limbo where he would alternate wins and losses for the next two years. Faber is currently coming off an impressive first round submission victory after a crushing loss in a championship fight, and there is talk of rushing him towards a title shot now against Dominick Cruz. Oddly, as we head into January 2011, this perfectly describes January 2009 and January 2010 for Faber.

It's quite obvious why Urijah Faber is almost always in the title picture. He's marketable, has a big name, a loyal following, is a top notch fighter, and is one of maybe five proven draws currently in mixed martial arts. With the bantamweight and featherweight divisions still flourishing, it's almost a no-brainer to keep someone who is far and away the biggest star competing in those divisions as close to the championship as possible. It becomes even harder to deny Urijah Faber championship opportunities when he turns in consistently entertaining performances where he is able to finish fighters who don't get finished, and make it look relatively easy in the process.

The problem is that with every victory that Faber's secured within the last two years, he's also suffered a major loss. After he defeated Jens Pulver for the second time, he dropped a five round decision to Mike Brown. After he strangled Rafael Assuncao, he took an absolute beating at the hands of Jose Aldo. Now with a win over Takeya Mizugaki, Faber finds himself with a possible title opportunity against Dominick Cruz. The UFC Bantamweight Champion is not unlike Jose Aldo, in that he is a fighter that no one has been able to figure how to fight, let alone defeat (now that he's dropped to bantamweight and developed a style that might give CompuStrike fits).

While Faber has a victory over Cruz, "The Dominator" has become an entirely different fighter with an entirely different style than when he and Faber met at 145 pounds. At 135 pounds, no one has come close to figuring out how to mount sustained offense against Cruz, including Faber's Team Alpha Male comrade, Joseph Benavidez, who stylistically is as similar to Faber as you can get.

The amount of risk Urijah Faber runs in taking all of these fights so quickly is admirable, but might not do him any favors should he be unsuccessful against Dominick Cruz. If Faber loses to Cruz, then he would be 0-4 in championship fights spanning from 2008 to 2011, and would make it beyond difficult to actually sell him in title fights moving forward, regardless of how unbelievably marketable he is and how dominant he is in non-title victory.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/amadis_take/article_7959.shtml

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