Chicago Hope

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- When Clay Guida first witnessed the Anthony Pettis “Kick Heard ’round the World,” he immediately sent out a text declaring copyright infringement. For that matter, so did several of his Jackson’s Mixed Martial Arts teammates who were gathered at Isaac Vallie-Flagg's house to watch WEC 53 in December. They had all seen it before.

“It was nuts,” Guida says. “We said, ‘That’s John Dodson’s move. He stole that from Johnny Dodson. We were all texting Dodson.”

It was likely that way in many camps, where practice inevitably becomes the playground for experimentation. Dodson, as the acclaimed New Mexico dojo’s unofficial innovator of offense, felt a sinking feeling as he watched the evening’s events unfold.

“I was more upset that I wasn’t allowed to do it on such a historic occasion. When he did it to Ben Henderson for the last WEC fight, for the last 155[-pound] title belt, it was just more historic,” Dodson says. “Everybody got to see a move that I like to do all the time, and they get to [associate] it to somebody else’s name. That kind of kicked me in the nuts.”

Or perhaps the face.

Pettis’ improbable roundhouse kick off the cage effectively sealed his unanimous decision victory over Henderson at WEC 53 and left more than a few jaws agape. It made Google searches like “Pettis” and “matrix” and “Pettis” and “ninja” commonplace. The video garnered more than two million hits on YouTube and earned a spot among ESPN’s Top 10 Plays of 2010. Known as “Showtime,” the Duke Roufus protégé had arrived at mainstream sports prominence.

Yet, those in the game insist they had seen it before.

Some 1,300 miles away, Alex Trujillo, Guida’s MMA coach in Chicago, expressed a similar sentiment. While Trujillo admired the boldness and innovation of the move, he trains an amateur named Damien Norris who displays a similar bag of tricks at the Midwest Training Center.

“He’s really decorated in kickboxing [and] tae kwon do. He’s a kid that Clay’s trained with in preparation for this,” Trujillo says. “His posture, his body language, is identical to Pettis. Damien was very excited by seeing Pettis’ success. He came in the next day saying, ‘Look coach, I can do this.’ He's jumping off the walls and kicking and adding the spin.”

So, yes, Guida has seen templates for Pettis’ creativity in both the Southwest and the Midwest. On Saturday, Guida meets the author himself at “The Ultimate Fighter 13” Finale at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas.

UFC President Dana White had guaranteed Pettis a UFC lightweight title shot with a win, although the postponement of the Frankie Edgar-Gray Maynard rematch could alter that schedule. Guida has been given no such assurances, but that sits just fine with the former Strikeforce lightweight champion, who believes Pettis deserves all the attention he has received.

“I’m proud of him; I think that’s awesome,” Guida says. “It’s just what we need in this sport. He deserves all the publicity he’s getting, because it’s only gonna happen for a short time.”

Since a split decision setback to Bart Palaszewski at WEC 45, Pettis has been on a roll, finishing Danny Castillo, Alex Karalexis and Shane Roller before taking the promotion’s lightweight strap in the memorable match with Henderson.

Guida is on a hot streak of his own, besting Shannon Gugerty, Rafael dos Anjos and Takanori Gomi by submission in each of his last three bouts. Those close to “The Carpenter” are quick to point out that the 29-year-old has faced more difficult opposition over the course of his career than has Pettis.

“I think the toughest guy Pettis has fought is Ben Henderson, and Clay’s fought a who’s who of guys even before he got to the UFC,” says Vallie-Flag, referencing pre-Zuffa opponents like Josh Thomson and Strikeforce 155-pound king Gilbert Melendez.

While Pettis’ loss to Palazsewski represented a turning point of sorts in his career, Guida also turned a corner against the International Fight League veteran in an Illinois-based event nearly six years ago. Trujillo remembers Guida coming to his gym as a wrestler with rudimentary skills in most other areas. Against Palazewski, Guida’s favored mode of attack was not working, so he was forced to adapt.


“He couldn’t take Bart down,” Trujillo says. “I wouldn’t say he outstruck him, but he jabbed him to death. The takedown threat kept Bart from committing to any punches because Clay was just shooting and jabbing, shooting and jabbing. The fight wasn’t a landslide or anything, but Clay won every round off of just his jab and the threat of his shot. When he came to me, I don’t think that would have been possible.”

To this day, Guida has an uncanny knack for adjusting on the fly. He says the unorthodox head movement that confounded Gomi at UFC 125 and corralled the Japanese striker’s heavy hands was not something that was originally planned.

“I don’t think I did it in practice once. It was by accident,” Guida says. “We wanted to keep him guessing, and when I heard him swing for the fences, I heard wind go by my ears. You gotta be able to be creative in there and switch from Game Plan A to B, C and D at the snap of a finger.”

Creative is a word most often used in conjunction with the talents of Pettis these days, but when faced with a frenetic whirlwind of long-haired, tattooed fury in the Octagon, the last WEC lightweight champion in the promotion’s history might just be a little bit more hesitant to pull the trigger on some of his riskier offerings.

“I think Clay’s got the ability to put pressure on him when he wants to and fight at the length that he wants to,” says striking coach Mike Winkeljohn. “I think Clay can control the distance. He’ll control where the fight goes. I think he’ll be the boss of this fight in that sense.”

The talent pool at 155 pounds might be deeper than any other division, and Guida’s training partners reflect that depth. From the well-balanced kickboxing of Donald Cerrone to the frightening speed and power of Melvin Guillard, Guida has seen plenty of different looks in sparring. And when he needs to expect the unexpected, he squares off with Dodson.

“All I’ve been doing,” Dodson says, “is as many head kicks as I can do, both sides, moving my feet around -- [being] as flashy as I can be.”

There have not been many more solid head kicks than the one Diego Sanchez used to floor Guida early in the first round of their wild battle at “The Ultimate Fighter 9” Finale in 2009. Guida lost a split decision in that fight, but the fact that he survived all three rounds was an achievement in itself.

“He kicked me right in the jaw, and I didn’t know which way was up, down, left or right,” Guida says. “I remember flashes of the fight -- 20 second flashes.”

That type of resilience is par for the course. In 39 career professional fights, Guida has never been finished with strikes. However spontaneous Pettis may be in their encounter, it seems a reasonable expectation that the Illinois native will continue to push forward. While Guida acknowledges that Pettis has the inside track to a title shot, the allure of the strap keeps him motivated, as well.

The Chicago Bulls’ deep run into the NBA playoffs served as a source of pride for Guida, as he notes a parallel between the workmanlike efforts of his hometown team and the selfless attitude of his current crew at Jackson’s Mixed Martial Arts. It will not happen this year, but Guida would love to see Derrick Rose and Co. lead a championship parade in downtown Chicago someday. To eventually bring home a title of his own would be that much sweeter.

“I want that gold. That’s what drives me every day,” he says. “We’ve been doing the journey for a while. I’ve enjoyed the journey, but I know the destination is going to be that much sweeter when I get there.”

To do so, he will have to go through the guy who has been on everyone’s highlight reel, the guy who takes what others do in practice and makes it a reality. Pettis might not be the established commodity Guida is, but his daring deserves respect.

“When you miss something like that, you can stumble, you can fall, but he had the guts to try it,” Winkeljohn says. “The fact that he tried it in a fight is incredible.”

So how does one prepare for the unprecedented? How does one defend against the next move that could wind up on the MMA equivalent of an And1 Mixtape? For Guida, the answer is simple.

“Don’t let it happen,” he says, shaking his head with a smile. “Just don’t let it happen.”