Clay Guida

Clay Guida (born December 8, 1981) is an American professional mixed martial artist, currently signed to the UFC competing in the Lightweight division.

A professional competitor since 2003, Guida also formerly competed for Strikeforce, the WEC, King of the Cage, and Shooto.

Guida was the inaugural Strikeforce Lightweight Champion.

Born and raised in Illinois into an Italian family, Guida began wrestling at the age of five and was a three-sport athlete at Johnsburg High School.

He continued his wrestling career for Harper College, where he competed at 149 lbs.

He is the younger brother of fellow mixed martial artist, Jason Guida.

Guida made his professional debut in the summer of 2003, losing via rear-naked choke in the first round.

After compiling a record of 3–3, he then won his next 15 consecutive fights before losing via submission at a King of the Cage event in February 2006.

Guida was then signed by Strikeforce and fought a month later against Josh Thomson for the Strikeforce Lightweight Championship.

Guida won via unanimous decision, before losing to the then-undefeated Gilbert Melendez.

After losing his next bout overseas in Japan via submission, Guida was signed by Zuffa and the WEC, making his promotional debut at WEC 23.

He won via unanimous decision.

With an overall record of 20–6, Guida was signed by the UFC.

Guida was successful in his UFC debut, submitting Justin James in the second round at UFC 64.

The submission earned him the Submission of the Night award.

Guida lost a unanimous decision to Din Thomas at UFC Fight Night: Evans vs. Salmon in his second UFC outing.

Guida garnered attention for his three-round split decision loss to Tyson Griffin at UFC 72.

Both fighters were awarded the Fight of the Night bonus.

At UFC 74 Guida rebounded from his two consecutive losses, taking a split decision over PRIDE veteran Marcus Aurélio.

Guida was defeated by Roger Huerta at The Ultimate Fighter 6 Finale via rear-naked choke in the 3rd round after clearly winning the first 2 rounds.

Both fighters were awarded the Fight of the Night bonus.

Guida returned to his winning ways at UFC Fight Night 13, where he defeated UFC newcomer Samy Schiavo via TKO at 4:15 of the first round.

In a bout at UFC Fight Night 15, he defeated Mac Danzig via unanimous decision (30–27, 29–28, 29–28).

Guida defeated Ultimate Fighter winner Nate Diaz via split decision at UFC 94.

Both fighters were awarded the Fight of the Night bonus.

His next fight was against Diego Sanchez, at The Ultimate Fighter: United States vs. United Kingdom Finale which he lost by split decision.

The fight had a frantic pace in which Guida weathered a ferocious striking offensive from Sanchez, with a seemingly endless barrage of punches and a brutal headkick which dropped Guida in the first round.

This bout went on to win Fight of the Night honors.

The fight would later make #13 on the "100 Greatest UFC fights" list.

Despite his status as an up-and-coming UFC fighter he was not included in the UFC 2009 Undisputed video game due to technical issues caused by his long hair.

He was even offered $10,000 by Dana White to cut it, but he refused.

On December 12, 2009, he fought Kenny Florian at UFC 107.

In the second round of a bloody fight, Guida was dropped by a right hand and lost via rear-naked choke.

Guida was expected to face Sean Sherk on March 21, 2010, at UFC LIVE: Vera vs. Jones, but Sherk was forced off the card with an injury.

Shannon Gugerty stepped up to become Guida's new opponent on the preliminary section of the event.

At UFC Live: Vera vs. Jones Guida defeated Shannon Gugerty at 3:40 of round 2 by way of arm-triangle choke, ending Guida's two fight losing streak along with winning his first UFC Submission of the Night award.

Guida then faced Rafael dos Anjos on August 7, 2010, at UFC 117.

Guida appeared to injure the jaw of dos Anjos in the first round with a hook and would go on to defeat dos Anjos by submission (jaw injury) after dos Anjos tapped from the pressure being applied to his jaw while Guida had head-and-arm control.

Guida defeated Takanori Gomi on January 1, 2011, at UFC 125 by submission due to a guillotine choke in round two, his third consecutive submission victory which also earned him Submission of the Night honors.

Guida next defeated former #1 Lightweight contender Anthony Pettis via unanimous decision (30–27, 30–27, 30–27) on June 4, 2011, at The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale.