In what has to be the fight of the year in MMA so far for 2009, TUF1 Middleweight champion Diego ‘Nightmare’ Sanchez scored a split decision over Clay Guida in the main event of The Ultimate Fighter 9 Finale. Both guys seemed eager to start the fight, with Sanchez staring Guida down during his walk to the Octagon and the fighters engaging in one of the most intense staredowns during the referee’s final instructions. That eagerness boilt over as both men opened with a huge flurry that lasted a good 20 seconds with Sanchez rocking Guida against the cage. The two traded heavy strikes for the opening minute of the first round with Sanchez’s ever improving stand-up skills allowing him to tattoo Guida with a variety of clean shots, one of which knocked Guida’s mouthpiece out. Guida then scored a takedown and began working his top game that has earnt him victories over Mac Danzig and Nate Diaz in his recent outings. Sanchez worked his way back to his feet and after a brief respite to replace Guida’s mouthguard, Sanchez again took the upper hand dropping Guida heavily with a head kick. Somehow Guida wasn’t unconscious when he hit the ground, and he rises before Sanchez can finish him. Sanchez went to work with his hands landing more hard shots that appeared to have broken Guida’s nose before getting a takedown of his own and landing several shots from on top before the buzzer sounded.
And that was just the first round…..
Guida came out for the 2nd round like nothing had happened and put Sanchez on his back early and began to control him from on top. Sanchez was just as aggressive from his back, throwing hard elbows that landed frequently as Guida appeared more interested in controlling Diego then doing damage. Sanchez was also busy with submission attempts, looking for the kimura on more then one occasion although Guida’s defence was tight. The fighters exchange strikes on the ground at the end of the round with Sanchez landing a series of elbows that cut Guida’s forehead open before the buzzer. Sanchez scored early in the third with strikes as Guida attempted to land punches to set up a takedown. Midway through the round Guida shoots in for a takedown which fails an Sanchez tries to capitilise by taking his back. Guida defends and Sanchez ends up on bottom but with a rear (?) naked choke locked in as he is still half around Guida’s back. Guida escapes again and looks to capitilise but Sanchez keeps him busy defending submission attempts as the fight ends and the debate about who won begins.
While Sanchez did the most damage by far, Guida was successful in controlling where the fight went for most of it. I scored a 10-8 round for Sanchez in the first and thought the 2nd and 3rd could go either way (I wouldn’t argue with a 10-9 in the first either) giving Guida the 2nd and Sanchez the 3rd. The judges were split with 29-28 Guida and 29-28/29-27 for Sanchez giving him the split decision and likely a shot at the winner of Florian-Penn at UFC 101. It truly was one of the best fights I’ve seen in MMA and both fighters stock rose significantly from the fight.
In the Ultimate Fighter Finals it was a UK clean sweep with Ross Pearson edging Andre Winner in the Lightweight Final and James Wilks choking out DeMarques Johnson in the opening round of the Welterweight final. Also on the card, Chris Lytle survived a scary first round in which he was dropped to score a unanimous decision over Kevin Burns and TUF2 Welterweight Joe Stevenson showed an improved overall game decisioning TUF5 Lightweight champion Nate Diaz.
