Ben Henderson and Clay Guida battle for Next Shot at Frankie Edgar

Eventhough FOX only sees fit to put the Heavyweight title fight on TV for free, a fight that promises to be a candidate for Fight of the Year is Ben Henderson vs. Clay Guida. Both fighters are high octane, non-stop style that are willing to take calculated chances if they feel the outcome may win the fight. Ben Henderson has been steady throughout his career, suffering a loss early in his career than losing a tight decision to Anthony Pettis when "Showtime" landed a highlight kick to end all highlights that would have floored most men but Ben Henderson kept plugging along. Clay "the Carpenter" Guida is on a nice little run since suffering two straight losses back in 2009.

Guida has fought a who's who of the UFC's lightweight division and has held his own. Early on, Clay's all out style hurt him in the sense that it seemed he had no game plan as to how to win. His only focus was to not get hurt and hurt the other guy. But since joining Greg Jackson's camp, Clay Guida goes into matches with an idea of how to win a match against that particular opponent. Then he augments it with his kill or be killed style and goes in for the kill when the timing is right. Hence 3 finishes in his last 4 fights. But in his fight against Anthony Pettis, he reverted back to ground and hold style that won him a razor thin split decision victory that I disagreed with.
Unfortunately for Ben Henderson, Guida's style may be his Achilles heel. Ben Henderson, for all his skill and resilience, has a tendency to place himself in bad situations that he somehow works his way out of. Clay Guida is the wrong guy to end up in a bad position against. He can and is very willing to keep you in said position. Very few have the ground and pound and wrestling pedigree that Guida does in any weight division. He grounded Nate Diaz and Anthony Pettis, two fighters well known for standing at will when taken down. While Ben Henderson may have shown he can escape peril thus far, if he does escape from Clay Guida's ground and pound, it will zap a lot of his will and energy. Then "The Carpenter" will utilize his elite cardio and insane pace on his way to a unanimous decision victory. Will it matter to Frankie Edgar who wins? Probably not. Frankie Edgar will face anybody, anytime.


The rest of the card :
Pablo Garza finishes Dustin Poirier
Ricardo Lamas outlasts Cub Swanson
Clay Harvison slips by Damarques Johnson
Darren Uyenoyama upsets Kid Yamamoto
Robert Peralta finishes Mackens Semerzier
Aaron Rosa KOs Matt Lucas