Guida walked into the cage as the overwhelming crowd favorite, but minute-by-minute, round-by-round he lost them.
Maynard spent much of the two opening two rounds stalking Guida, but could hardly ever catch him. At times, his movement was simple and effective evasion from a dangerous situation. At other times, it could more simply be described as running away.
In the fourth round, Maynard dropped his hands to his side and verbally taunted Guida, offering his chin as a target. Guida took the opportunity to throw three strikes, and Maynard never even raised his hands to defend himself, he was so unconcerned with Guida’s power. Then Guida ducked low for the takedown, and Maynard sprawled before trying a guillotine.
With that, any remaining members of the Atlantic City, New Jersey crowd that were originally rooting for Guida completely swung in Maynard’s favor, so thrilled that he’d lured Guida into some sustained offense.
In the fifth, Maynard again basically opened up his defense hoping for Guida to wade in, but he mostly resisted until referee Dan Miragliotta called timeout to warn Guida he would take a point away if he continued to fail to engage.
Before the official result was read, the Revel Casino crowd chanted Maynard’s name, and received their wish.
Clay “The Carpenter” Guida Vs. Gray “The Bully” Maynard
Fight was scheduled for 3 rounds (5x5x5)
Gray Maynard over Clay Guida by Split Decision (48-47, 48-47, 47-48)
