According to a Feb. 28 report from MMA Mania, UFC standout Clay Guida is conflicted.
On one hand, he wants to put on an exciting show for the fans. On the other, he hopes to make it through his MMA fighting career without suffering a lot of damage.
Guida's recent comments in an MMA Mania interview makes him seem like he fears suffering brain damage from strikes to the head. Dozens of boxers through the years have suffered brain injuries that led to problems with the overall health, and Guida doesn't want to end up like that.
"Yes, strategy is part of every fight, keeping your brain intact so that one day I can talk to my family like a normal human being instead of stuttering like so many of these boxing buffoons and some of these professional athletes," Guida said. "There is life after fighting and I want to be that guy that people can look to as a good coach and somebody they can look up to as a role model. There's a lot of things after fighting. Any fight I'm in is a potentially exciting fight and everybody knows that."
UFC President Dana White thinks Guida changed his style to a less crowd-pleasing approach, but "The Carpenter" disagrees.
"I didn't really know about that. 157 was last week? Dana and I have an understanding. He knows I'm one fight away from potentially having a "Fight of the Night" or a "Fight of the Year" candidate," Guida said. "These last couple of fights, Hioki, I want to see his last six fights and see how exciting those were. All of his fights in the UFC have been snoozers. Mine against him was a snoozer. I'm not gonna take anything away from that. It was a boring fight, sorry. The Gray Maynard one? We spoke about that and obviously it wasn't the most exciting but I always thought that the guy who gets hit the least and takes the least amount of damage usually wins in a mixed martial arts or combat sport. I'm over talking about that fight.
"Before that, I fought Ben Henderson and that was a "Fight of the Year" contender. Before that I beat one of the former champs (Pettis) and before that I beat a former Pride champ (Gomi). The list goes on and on. I submitted guys and people know my style is always gonna be exciting. I challenge a guy that actually wants to go in there nose-to-nose conditioning-wise and put it on the line and we'll see who comes out on top. People know I'm out there to fight every fight like it might be my last."
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