One of the most anticipated bouts taking place on the UFC Fight Night 19 main card will be a lightweight battle between Xtreme Couture-trained wrestler and The Ultimate Fighter season 5 contestant Gray Maynard (7-0-0-1) and lightweight standout Roger "El Matador" Huerta (20-2-1-1). The bout will be the last on Huerta's current UFC contract, and he'll be moving on from fighting, for now, in order to pursue a career in acting. Unfortunately for him, the UFC has matched him up with one of their promising up-and-comers in the lightweight division in "The Bully". Maynard's abilities as being a smothering top control fighter coupled with improving stand-up can't bode well for Huerta's chances of escaping the promotional chains of the UFC with a win.

Huerta is 6-1 in the UFC with notable wins over Clay Guida and Leonard Garcia while he was fed unique challenges with Alberto Crane, Doug Evans, John Halverson, and Jason Dent over the span of roughly three years. Huerta was obviously being groomed as a potential draw if the UFC moved into Mexico, but he was also being labeled as the future of the lightweight division. Unfortunately, Kenny Florian dashed all hopes of a title run by frustrating Huerta for three rounds at UFC 87 in what many fans felt was a very lackluster performance from Huerta.

Maynard is currently undefeated with five of his seven wins taking place in the Octagon. His most impressive win came at UFC Fight Night 13 in which he upset Frankie Edgar via decision. He went on to defeat both Rich Clementi and Jim Miller via decision at UFC 90 and UFC 96 respectively, and his name is now being mentioned in regards to contendership if he manages to crush Huerta on Wednesday night.

Interestingly enough, Huerta has gone back to his roots in Minnesota as he's isolated himself in a total media blackout. He hasn't really watched television, surfed the internet, or done the loads of media lead-up interviews that normally come with such a high profile fight. He's even requested no pre-fight media for this battle. He's went back to training with former UFC champ Dave Menne and strength and conditioning coach Justin Hagen at Northway Gym in Maple Grove, Minnesota.

While the training partners that Huerta has been using don't have the high profile names of Xtreme Couture, Brandon Girtz, Tony Sims, and Jake Deitchler are easily giving Huerta some challenges, and Dietchler is probably the ultimate training partner when it comes to bringing in one of the highest level wrestlers in the country to prepare you for Maynard's wrestling. Dietchler is a three-time Minnesota State champion, 2008-2009 Olympic Trials champion, second place at 2008 Nationals, and he's a member of the U.S. Greco-Roman squad. The 19-year-old is currently ranked #1 at 145.5 lbs. in the nation.

HT: Thomas Gerbasi (UFC.com)

Even more interesting is Huerta's stance following the fight on Wednesday. Thomas Gerbasi at UFC.com asked Huerta about the possibility of coming away with a spectacular finish against Maynard, and the subsequent offer by the UFC following that to make another deal. Roger stated:

"To be honest, I have not even looked that far yet," said Huerta. "That’s the God’s honest truth. I’ve looked into my opponent, Gray, and beating him. Any kind of decisions I have to make after that, it’s obviously gonna be with my family, my management team, and my trainers."

Seems like there might be some hope after all if Huerta can pull off the win. Of course, Gray Maynard will be trying to not only stop Huerta, but he'll likely want to make Huerta look bad as a dim "swan song" to Huerta's career in the UFC.

Maynard will bring his three-time NCAA D-I All-American wrestling honors to the cage along with an improving punching game that he surprised many fans with in his battles with Frankie Edgar and Jim Miller. While Maynard hasn't been the epitome of a devastating striker, he does possess the power to knockout opponents and the strength to be a dominating force on the ground with his strikes. His ever-improving boxing game will likely begin producing some highlight reel knockouts if his opponents take him lightly.

I feel like this fight may be confusing for some fans. While this looks like a battle in which Maynard could grind out a top-controlling decision victory, I'm a little more inclined to believe that training with Jake Deitchler is going to prepare Huerta for Maynard. After all, Deitchler is faster and a far more accomplished wrestler than Maynard. But this is MMA after all.

If Huerta can nullify the wrestling of Maynard, this could end up turning into a boxing match. Huerta's training has involved a lot of Thai boxing-type of striking, and while I'm comfortable in what Huerta brings to the table in the striking game... Maynard remains a mystery. Maynard has shown some decent boxing in his most recent wins, and we all know that Gray's conditioning regiment is outstanding. Both guys can run with a high pace as evident in Huerta's win over Clay Guida, so we could be in for a real barn burner in this bout. It ultimately comes down to Huerta stopping Maynard in the takedown game, and hopefully a young Olympian like Deitchler can do that for Huerta to make this a real battle.