UFC
UFC.com gets comments from Ben Henderson and Clay Guida on next week's Anthony Pettis-Gilbert Melendez title bout
Nov 28, 2014 - 6:55:02 PM UFC.com gets comments from Ben Henderson and Clay Guida on next week's Anthony Pettis-Gilbert Melendez title bout

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Thomas Gerbasi at UFC.com has an intriguing interview with Benson Henderson and Clay Guida on next weekend's Anthony Pettis vs. Gilbert Melendez fight for the UFC Lightweight Championship.

Henderson and Guida are the only two common opponents for Pettis and Melendez, with Henderson having lost twice to Pettis while holding a decision win over Melendez, and Guida holding a dull decision win over Pettis while having lost to Melendez in a five round fight in 2006. With that experience against both fighters, each of them were in a unique position to comment on the matchup. Here are a couple of excerpts, but make sure to check out the entire piece at UFC.com.

Henderson on the matchup and who has the edge:

"I think this is going to be a very close fight. I see both guys having the potential to win, but that being said, I think what it's going to boil down to is Pettis not being afraid to throw things, whether it's an armlock in the first round against a guy who has great submission defense or a pretty awesome kick off the cage in the fifth round. That's the reason why he [Pettis] is so good – he throws unorthodox stuff and he's not afraid to throw it. What Melendez needs to do is put the fear in Pettis. He needs to make Pettis afraid of doing this. Pettis has a couple losses on his record – he lost to Clay Guida who had control the entire time, he lost to Bart Palaszewski – and there's a blueprint on how to beat Pettis, and part of that is making him afraid. Gilbert needs to hit him hard with a good two and let his hands go, or capitalize when Pettis goes for something and leaves an opening. He needs to punish Pettis for that and make him hurt so that Pettis is more wary to throw up stuff later in the fight.

...I give the slight edge to Gilbert because he does have that five-round experience. We know that he can go five rounds hard and Pettis has never been there in the UFC before. In his fight against Clay Guida, he didn't look like he quite had it in the third round. He looked a little bit frustrated, a little bit tired, and he wasn't quite there. We know Gilbert has had some five-round wars with Josh Thomson back in Strikeforce years ago so we know he can get there. His fight against me, that was a great five-round affair, and the nod went to me, but he was there in the fifth round, pushing the pace and trying to do his thing. So I give the slight edge just for championship experience."


Guida on why he succeeded against Pettis and what Melendez has improved upon in the past eight years:

"Once [Pettis] starts getting his range and starts getting comfortable in there, that's when he starts unloading his pinpoint punches and kicks. A striker like an Anderson Silva, Anthony Pettis or my teammate Cub Swanson, once you give them space and they start getting their footwork down, they're very, very tough to deal with and that's when they start hurting guys. Frankie [Edgar] was the prime example of it the other night. They got into a few exchanges, then Frankie found the timing, he got his level changes, and he just stayed glued to Cub and kept him on his back. I didn't let Anthony be Showtime. I got in his face and kept him backpedaling. If you notice, most of the times when I got my takedowns, I would get him backpedaling, I'd give him a split-second, he would throw a strike and I would just duck underneath him and get my single or double leg and blast right through him. I stuck with what I knew – try not to get hit too much and put those guys on their back. I didn't let him get off his strikes and I did a little ground and pound from the top.

...Gil is a very polished striker now. He's an awkward striker, and he's big. He's got a great sprawl, so he can keep you at bay with his jab and his cross, and everything he throws is straight down the middle and he uses that to his advantage. He also keeps his legs back so it's hard for people to shoot on him. And though Anthony is still a very skilled and dangerous striker, I tell people this to this day – of all the black belts and world-class jiu-jitsu guys that I've fought, Anthony Pettis has the best, most dangerous guard I've ever been in. The whole time I was on top I had to keep repositioning and defending triangles and armbars. It was crazy. I could never really get set up for dominant ground and pound. People know how to beat him by watching him; people don't know how to beat him by getting in there since I fought him."

Penick's Analysis: Intriguing takes from the two fighters who have faced each man. What's so great about this title fight is that they're extremely good in their dominant skill set - Pettis in the striking game, Melendez with his grappling and ground and pound - but they're also very good in other areas that just don't get a ton of attention. Guida giving him credit for his dangerous guard is a sign of that, and we've seen Melendez have success in the striking department as well. There's a ton of really interesting possibilities to how this fight could take place, and that makes it a fascinating title bout that's still kind of flying under the radar. Regardless, it's as good as the main event rematch next weekend as well, and it's a part of a really strong final pay-per-view of 2014.

[Benson Henderson art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]