Following his victory over Anthony Pettis, Clay Guida believes wrestling wins championships
by Tim Groves on June 05, 2011

"Wrestling wins championships. Look at most of the champs right now, and some of the people that have a hard time. Anderson Silva is one of my favorite fighters, and you've seen that he has trouble with good wrestlers like Chael Sonnen. Cain Velasquez is one of the best wrestlers out there. Georges St-Pierre is a phenom. He's one of those athletes that comes around once every 100 years. The guy could probably go wrestle in the Olympics. You saw he used to struggle with wrestling. Now he's a master of it. Jose Aldo has a couple of holes in his game. We saw besides maybe his gas tank, it could be wrestling. Mark Hominick is not a great wrestler, and he was taking him down. There's no secret anymore. Wrestling wins championships." - Clay Guida

Maybe it isn't what the fans of mixed martial arts want to hear but Clay Guida has begun to preach the benefits of wrestling, according to MMAJunkie.com.

After Guida stifled and controlled Anthony Pettis for all three rounds of their lightweight bout, Guida made it seem as if he had seen the light when it comes to wrestling in mixed martial arts.

Fans were left with a bitter taste in their mouth following Guida's victory, one that saw minimal action outside of hair flips and shoulder strikes. Guida's bobbing and dancing on the feet made it difficult for Pettis to commit to any strikes, while Guida did his best to eliminate any openings Pettis might have for submissions on the ground. 

Guida brought up a harsh reality in his post fight interview, four out of the seven weight classes are ruled by wrestlers. Frankie Edgar at lightweight, Georges St. Pierre at welterweight, Jon Jones at light heavyweight and Cain Velasquez at heavyweight. Edgar, Jones and Velasquez continue to put on exciting fights despite their wrestling based styles but it certainly raises a valid point going forward with the sport.

With the continued success of wrestlers and their sheer dominance, how long until former All-American wrestlers rule every single division? Will the sport ever reach that point?

Is the continued success of wrestlers in the UFC compared to other disciplines a cause for concern? Should rule changes (knees to the head of a downed opponent) or judging criteria (activity from the bottom) be changed in order to curb the wrestling revolution? Let us know in the comments.

 |  (38) Comments Mickey knox: Really? Really Guida? You like to wrestle? Is that your usual gameplan? I'd have never known. I thought you were going for a KO last night.:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: Guida talking about GSP's wrestling skills is one of the most painfully redundant cases of campstroking outside of listening to the Nog's talk about Black House. :p Mickey knox: I wasn't saying he was wrong, I was saying he's playing the part of captain obvious here as well as stroking his camp and GSP. In case you couldn't tell, I really don't like Guida at all. That Other Guy: With the cage, infrequent standups, no yellow cards for stalling, no knees or kicks to the head of a grounded opponent, and allowing short elbows, wrestling is going to dominate. The scoring system also favors it. PRIDE had the best rule set in mma, but as long as the UFC maintains their rules, you have to expect it. Its just part of the sport. illegalpoke: I like the card system. Makes it more sport-like. flyangler: I'm gonna be in the minority here, but I enjoyed the Guida/Pettis fight way more than Hermans KO of Credur. I was on the edge of my seat the entire fight and thought it was a perfect technical beatdown of Pettis. It would have been stupid for Clay to stand and trade with Pettis for any length of time. At the same time Pettis should have trained better to prevent Guida from taking him down and controlling the top position so effectively. Clay is also very good at submission defense making Pettis's ground game a non-factor. Wrestling IS the most important base in any style of MMA rules. thebutterflybee: Wrestling is a base, not the be all and end all. What Guida doesn't note is that all the wrestling based champions use their wrestling to help something else. From top to bottom ... Cain Velasquez - stops take downs, being able to utilise good stand up. Or when he does take them down, MAULS them. Jon Jones - able to dictate where the fight takes place allowing him to be explosive and dangerous from everywhere. GSP - when taking people down, punishes them on the ground, works for subs, or decides to keep it on the feet and pick people apart. Edgar - keeps it on the feet to show off his excellent boxing. Guida ......... does nothing. Ever. It isn't his base. It is all he is. He will never be a champion. Either in the real sense, or in the people's champ sense. Lay'n'PrayNINJA: I like how Guida talks about Aldo's weakness being wrestling, and to look at how Hominick was "taking him down". LMAO did you watch that fight Clay? The ONE time Mark got a "TD" was when Aldo attempted a choke after rocking Mark on the feet. Far from a weakness in Aldo's game when he has stuffed 100% of Faber's and 100% of Brown's TD's...and took Mark down at will in their fight. Guida is right though. With these biased rules, and uneducated judges, wrestlers have a head start on everyone else. If you can stay on top, and have good submission defense, you can 10-9 yourself to victory over and over. SicJits: Bas not thrilled with Guida's W Bas Rutten Blasts The Lay and Pray Style The legendary Bas Rutten took to Twitter to rant about the "Lay n Pray" style which again reared its ugly head in the main event of The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale main event between Clay Guida and Anthony Pettis, here is what Bas had to say: I am not taking anything away from Guida, he did what he needs to do and actually has no choice to do something different. But, Pettis was attacking on his feet, and he was attacking on the ground, non stop. There should be something done with refereeing, otherwise we are gonna see way more of these fights, we are already seeing some. If somebody takes you down, but can't really get the better of the person he took down, they, at least, shouldn't count that takedown. Its what I have been saying for a long time, if somebody takes you down and just holds you, they should count that takedown AGAINST him. Now, this was of course not the case with Guida, so you can give him the takedown, but on the ground, all the attacks (pretty much) came from Pettis, I am just saying, that should count for something as well. People say, "Yeah, but submission escapes should count for something as well", yes, but NEVER more then the submission attacks. Like I said in an earlier tweet, if somebody attacks on the feet, and the other one just defends, and only "once a while" throws something back. Then , even when the person who attacks doesn't land a strike, HE is the aggressor, and in a striking match, HE will win the fight if it goes to a decision. In a ground fight, the guy who goes for submissions should be awarded more then the guy who defends them and only "once a while" tries one of his own, exactly the same as standing. That's my thought about this whole thing, again, I don't wanna take something away from Guida, he played a smart game, but it needs to be said. Godspeed and Party on!!
HOW WILL THE THIAGO ALVES VS. MARTIN KAMPMANN FIGHT END AT UFC ON FX 2?
Alves def. Kampmann via TKO/KO
Alves def. Kampmann via submission
Alves def. Kampmann via decision
Kampmann def. Alves via TKO/KO
Kampmann def. Alves via submission
Kampmann def. Alves via decision
TAKE ANOTHER POLL!